STEPHEN  B.  WEEKS 

CLASS  0F1886;PH.a  THE  JOHNS  HOPKINS  UNIVERSTTY 


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FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


Form  No.  A -368 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://archive.org/details/journeyinseaboarolms 


OUR   SLAVE   STATES. 


JOURNEY 


SEABOARD  SLAVE  STATES; 


WITH  REMARKS  ON  THEIR  ECONOMY. 


FREDERICK  LAW  OLMSTED, 

AUTHOR   OP    "  WALKS    AND    TALKS   OP    AN    AMERICAN    FARMER    IN    ENGLAND.' 


LONDON : 

SAMPSON   LOW,    SON,  &  CO.,  47,   LUDGATE    HILL. 

New  York:  — Dix  and  Edwards. 

1856. 


17 


"J 


Library,  Univ.  •< 
North  Carolina 


ADVERTISEMENT. 

In  the  year  1853,  the  author  of  this  work  made  a  journey  through  the 
Seaboard  Slave  States,  and  gave  an  account  of  his  obfervations  in  the 
"  New  York  Daily  Times,"  under  the  signature  of  "  Yeoman."  Thofe 
letters  excited  some  attention,  and  their  publication  in  a  book  was 
announced ;  but,  before  preparing  them  for  the  prefs,"  the  author  had 
occafiori  to  make  a  second  and  longer  vifit  to  the  South.  In  the 
light  of  the  experience  then  gathered,  the  letters  have  been  reviled, 
and,  with  much  additional  matter,  are  now  prefented  to  the  public. 

The  author's  obfervations  on  Cotton  Plantations,  and  in  the  fron- 
tier and  hill-country  of  the  South,  may  form  the  subject  of  a  subfe- 
quent  volume. 


y 


PREFACE. 


The  chief  design  of  the  author  in  writing  this  book 
has  been,  to  describe  what  was  most  interesting, 
amusing,  and  instructive  to  himself,  during  the  first 
three  of  fourteen  months'  traveling  in  our  Slave  States  ; 
using  the  later  experience  to  correct  the  erroneous 
impressions  of  the  earlier. 

He  is  aware  that  it  has  one  fault — it  is  too  fault- 
finding. He  is  sorry  fur  it,  but  it  cannot  now  be 
helped ;  so  at  the  outset,  let  the  reader  understand 
that  he  is  invited  to  travel  in  company  with  an  honest 
growler. 

But  growling  is  sometimes  a  duty  ;  and  the  traveler 
might  well  be  suspected  of  being  a  "  dead  head,"  or  a 
sneak,  who  did  not  find  frequent  occasion  for  its 
performance,  among  the  notoriously  careless,  make- 
shift, impersistent  people  of  the  South. 

For  the  rest,  the  author  had,  at  the  outset  of  his 


X  PREFACE. 

journey,  a  determination  to  see  things  for  himself,  as 
far  as  possible,  and  to  see  them  carefully  and  fairly, 
but  cheerfully  and  kindly.  It  was  his  disposition,  also, 
to  search  for  the  causes  and  extenuating  circumstances, 
past  and  present,  of  those  phenomena  which  are  com- 
monly reported  to  the  prejudice  of  the  slaveholding 
community ;  and  especially  of  those  features  which  are 
manifestly  most  to  be  regretted  in  the  actual  condition 
of  the  older  Slave  States. 

He  protests  that  he  has  been  influenced  by  no  par- 
tisan bias ;  none,  at  least,  in  the  smallest  degree  un- 
friendly to  fair  investigation,  and  honest  reporting.  At 
the  same  time,  he  avows  himself  a  democrat ;  not  in 
the  technical  and  partisan,  but  in  the  primary  and 
essential  sense  of  that  term.  As  a  democrat  he  went 
to  study  the  South — its  institutions,  and  its  people ; 
more  than  ever  a  democrat,  he  has  returned  from  this 
labor,  and  written  the  pages  which  follow. 

South-Side  States;  Island,  Jan.  9,  185G. 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER    I. 

WASHINGTON. 

The  Institution  for  Travelers,  1 ;  Servants,  3;  A  Maryland  Farm,  5  ;  Slave  La- 
bor, 10  j  Market  Day,  11;  Anecdote  of  a  Washington  Market- Woman,  12; 
Land  and  Labor,  13  ;  Free  Negroes,  14;  Dangerous  Men,  15. 

CHAPTER    II. 

VIRGINIA. 

Rail-road  Glimpses,  16;  Richmond,  19;  The  "Public  Guard,"  and  what  it 
means,  20  ;  Pretense  and  Parsimony,  21 ;  The  Model  American — Houdon's 
Statue,  22;  Public  Grounds,  Arboriculture,  23  ;*A  Slave  Funeral,  24  ;*rhe 
Slaves  on  Sunday,  27  j  Dandies,  White  and  Black,  28  ;*Slaves  as  Merchandise, 
30;  A  James  River  Farm,  40;  Slave  Labor,  the  Owner  hard  worked,  44; 
Overseers,  45 ;  A  Coal  Mine— Negro  and  English  Miners,  47 ;  Valuable  Serv- 
ants, 49;  Dresa  and  Style  of  People,  50;  The  Great  Southern  Route,  and 
its  Fast  Train,  52  ;  One  of  the  Law-Givers,  54 ;  Freight  Taken — the  Slave 
Trade,  55 ;  Taking  Care  of  Negroes,  58 ;  Rural  Scenery,  and  Life  in  Virginia, 
59  ;  Pretty  Jane,  62  ;  A  Sovereign — A  School  House,  64  ;  "  Old-Fields" — 
Wild  Beasts,  65 ;  Explicit  Direction,  67  ;  The  "  Straight  Road,"  69 ;  A  Farm 
House,  71 ;  The  Grocery,  73 ;  The  Court  House,  74;  The  Inn,  75;  The  New 
Man,  and  the  Old  House,  77  ;* Domestic  Life,  80  ;*  White  Laborers,  82;  A 
Calamity,  83 ;  "Bed-time,  85 ;  Settling,  86 ;  The  Wilderness— The  Meeting- 
House,  87;  An  Old  Tobacco  Plantation,  88;  Thinking  and  Working — Irish 
and  Negro  Labor,  91 ;  A  Free  Labor  Farm,  94 ;  Freed  Slaves,  95 ;  Uncle  Tom, 
97;  White  Hands,  99  ^Runaways,  100 ;  Recreation  and  Luxury,among  the 
Slaves,  101 ;  A  Bar-Room  Session— Ingenuity  of  the  Negro,  103 ;  Qualities  as 
a  Laborer,  104 ;  Improvement— Educational  Privileges,  106 ;  A  Distinguished 
Divine,  107;  How  they  are  fed  in  Virginia,  108 ;  Lodgings,  111;   Clothing 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

/  J 

112 ;  Religious  Condition,  113  ;  Falsehood,  116  ;  Stealing,  117  ;  A  Sermon  fox 
Slaves,  118  ;  Another  for  Masters,  122;  A  Firm  Faith,  123  ;  Free  Negroes, 
their  Condition  in  Virginia,  and  elsewhere,  125;  Petersburg  to  Norfolk, 
133,  James  River — Norfolk,  135;  Neglected  Opportunities,  137;  Legitimate 
Trade — Mopus,  141 ;  Education  of  Laborers,  and  of  Merchants — Influence  of 
Slavery,  146;  Labor  for  the  Navy,  143:  The  Dismal  Swamps,  and  the  Lum- 
ber Trade,  149 ;  Slave  Lumbermen  Life  in  the  Swamp — Slaves  Quasi  Free- 
men, 153 ;  The  Effect  of  Wages  to  Slaves,  155 ;  Agricultural  Value  of  Swamp 
Land,  156 ;  The  Truck  Business  of  Norfolk,  158  ;  Runaways  in  the  Swamp, 
159 ;  Dismal  Negro  Hunting,  169. 


CHAPTER    III. 
THE  ECONOMY  OF  VIRGINIA. 

Statistics  of  the  Elements  of  Wealth,  and  of  the  Actual  Results  of  Labor,  164; 
Of  Intellectual  Labor,  172 ;  What  is  not  the  Cause  of  the  comparative  Pov- 
erty, 173  ;  Propriety  of  the  Inquiry,  177 ;  Explanations  suggested,  180 ;  Their 
Insufficiency,  181 ;  Cost  and  Value  of  Labor  in  Virginia,  and  in  the  Wealthier 
States,  compared,  185 -"Loss  to  the  Employer  from  Illness,  etc.,  lSGrCurious 
Complaints  of  Slaves,  191 ;  House  Servants,  Free  and  Slave,  compared,  195  , 

v  Value  of  Good  Will  in  Work,  198;  The  Alleged  Slavery  effected  by  Com- 
petition, 200  ;  The  Comparative  Amount  of  Work  accomplished  by  Slave 
Labor  and  Competitive  Labor,  203;  Driving,  205;  Conclusion,  207;*YVhy 
Free  Labor,  if  cheaper,  does  not  drive  out  Slavery,  208 ;  Results  where 
Free  Labor  has  been  concentrated,  213  ;  The  Great  Experiment  of  the 
United  States,  214. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  POLITICAL  EXPERIENCE  OF  VIRGINIA. 

Some  Data  and  Phenomena  of  the  Virginia  Experiments  in  Political  Economy — 
how  Initiated,  216;  Convict  Christian  Slaves,  223 ;  Christian  Bond  Servants, 
227;  Heathen,  or  Infidel  Slaves,  231 ;  Quality  and  Education  of  the  Colonial 
Laborers,  234;^The  Proprietors,  234  f  Early  Tobacco  Culture,  236;  What 
might  have  been,  240  •  Style  of  Living,  241;  Wealth  and  Extravagance  of 
the  Colonial  Aristocracy,  243 ;  Industrial  Condition  of  Virginia  in  the  Hal- 
cyon Past,  248;  The  Revolution  of  1776— Excitement  and  Reaction,  255; 
Religious  Liberty,  257 ;  Primogeniture  and  Entail,  259 ;  Education  and 
Emancipation  of  the  Slave  People,  261 ;  Of  the  White  Poor,  267  ;  Social  Re- 
sults of  the  Revolution,  269 ;  Industrial  Results,  271 ;  Downfall  of  tho  Aris- 
tocracy, 273  ;  Effect  of  Democracy,  275 ;  Industrial  Progress,  277 ;  Rise  of  the 
Internal  Slave  Trade,  278;  Its  Industrial  Consequences,  280;  Influence  ••« 


CONTENTS.  X1H 

Condition  of  the  Slave,  281 ;  Effect  of  the  Abolition  Agitation,  284 ;  Present 
the  Political  Tendencies  in  Virginia,  288 ;  Education,  291 ;  The  Future  Pros- 
pect, 302. 

CHAPTER    V. 

NOETH  CAEOLINA. 

Mine  Ease  in  mine  Hotel,  305  ;  Petersburg  to  Weldon,  307 ;  Stage  Coaching, 
309  ;  Lazy  Niggers,  313 ;  Negroes  on  Public  Conveyances,  315 ;  The  Idee  of 
Potassum  a  First-Rater,  317  ;  Night  Trains,  317  ;  Raleigh,  318 ;  Evergreens, 
319 ;  A  Stage  Coach  Campaign,  320 ;  Bawley,  Rockland  Bob,  323  ;  The  Piny 
Wood,  325;  A  Horse-Killer,  329;  A  Praying  Blacksmith,  331;  Talent  Ap- 
plied to  Inn-Keeping,  332;  Fire!  Turn  Out!  337;  Turpentine,  and  Naval 
Stores — An  Account  of  the  Method  of  Collection,  and  of  Manufacture,  337  ; 
Distillation,  343 ;  Rosin,  345 ;  Tar,  347 ;  Slaves  in  the  Turpentine  Country, 
and  White  Vagabonds,  388;  The  North  Carolina  Fisheries,, and  Slave  Fisher- 
men, 351 ;  Titanic  Dentistry,  354 ;  Slaves  Eager  to  work  when  stimulated- 
by  Wages,  355 ;  Scotch  Highlanders — Immigration  to  North  Carolina,  355  ; 
A  Cotton  Mill,  356 ;  Wagoners,  357 ;  Boatmen,  359  ;  Tobacco-Rollers,  360 ; 
Improved  Means  of  Transport,  361 ;  Gross  Intermeddling  of  Northerners, 
363;  Wagon  Competition  with  Rail-roads,  364;  Plank  Roads,  365;  North 
Carolina  Character,  366  ;  Slavery  in  North  Carolina.  367  ;  Cape  Fear  River, 
368;  Wooding  Up,  369  ;  Labor  in  the  Glue  Trade.  371 ;  Wilmington,  374  ; 
Property  Interests,  375. 

CHAPTER    VI. 

SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA. 

Rail-road  Gang,  377 ;  Northern  Hay,  378 ;  Profit  of  Slave-Labor,  379 ;  Rough 
Riding,  380;  "  Very  Nice  Country,"  382 ;  Natural  Scenery,  382  ;  The  People, 
384;  Their  Habitations,  385;  Cotton  Plantations,  386;  Field  Hands,  387;  An 
Overseer,  388 ;  A  Free  Nigger,  389 ;  North  Carolina  and  South  Carolina  Nig- 
gers, 391 ;  A  Pleasant  Farm  House,  393  ;  Negro  Jodling — the  Carolina  Yell, 
394  ;  Camp  Fires,  395  ;  Slaves  at  Work,  397  ;  Conversation  with  a  Peasant, 
398  ;  His  Geographical  Knowledge— Education  of  the  Children  of  the  Higher 
Class,  402 ;  Manners  and  Morals  in  South  Carolina,  403;  Charleston,  404; 
Savannah,  405  ;  Slave  Funerals,  405 ;  A  Slave  Grave- Yard— Tombstones,  406- ; 
The  Eice  Coast,  409  ;  Northern  Invalids  and  Other  Travelers,  and  the  Ac- 
commodations for  them,  409  ;  "  Show  Plantations,"  412  ;  The  Crackers,  413  ; 
Negro  Quarters,  416  ;  A  Delightful  Mansion,  Wonderful  Live  Oak  Avenue, 
417 ;  Visit  to  a  Eice  Plantation,  418 ;  The  Eice  Coast  Malaria,  418 ;  House 
Servants  and  Field  Hands,  421 ;  Negro  Quarters,  422 ;  The  Slave  Nursery, 
423  ;  Teufelsdroekk's  Secret  of  Happiness,  425;  The  Watchman — an  intelligent 
and    trusty  Slave,  426;    How  he  became  so— Effect    of    Education,  429; 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

What  is  the  Economy  of  Slavery,  429;  Field  Hands,  430  ;  Food,  431 ;  More 
FieldHands,  their  Dress  and  Appearance,  432 ;  "  Water  Toters,"  433  ;  Grades 
of  Field  Hands,  433  ;  A  Native  African — Task  Work,  434  ;  Drivers,  436  ; 
Punishment,  438 ;  kSlaves  taking  care  of  themselves,  439  ;  Nefarious  Traders 
and  Grog-Shops,  441 ;  Laws  of  Trade  on  the  Plantation,  442 ;  A  Scheme  of 
Emancipation  suggested,  443  ;  Special  Depravity  of  the  Negro,  446 ;  Slave 
Marriages  and  Funerals,  448 ;  Slave  Chapels  and  Worship,  449 ;  Slave  Clei'gy, 
450 ;  A  Eeligious  Service  among  the  Crackers.  451. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

RICE,  AND  ITS  CULTURE. 

Rice,  and  its  Culture — Extent,  and  how  Limited,  462 ;  The  Atlantic  Rice  Dis- 
trict,  465 ;  Slave  Labor,  as  applied  on  Rice  Plantations,  478  ;  Treatment  of 
Slaves  on  Rice  Plantations,  484 ;  Overseers,  486. 


0  II  APTEE    VIII. 

EXPERIMENTAL   POLITICAL   ECONOMY  OF  SOUTH    CAROLINA 
AND    GEORGIA. 

The  Democratic  Social  Theory,  489  ;  The  South  Carolina  Social  Theory,  491 ; 
Origin  and  Early  Character  of  South  Carolina,  492;  Origin  of  "American- 
ism," 495 ;  The  Early  Black  Code,  496;  Progress,  497;  Results,  500;  Good 
Society,  501 ;  The  Free  Laboring  Class  at  the  Revolution,  502 ;  Its  Present 
Condition,  504 ;  The  Sand-Hillers,  506;  Immigration,  510 ;  Present  Industrial 
Condition,  515  ;  The  Predicament,  522 ;  The  Origin  of  the  Georgia  Communi- 
ty, 523;  Early  Resistance  to  Slavery,  527;  The  Law  against  Slavery  abro- 
gated, 528 ;  Influence  of  the  Early  Democracy,  529  ;  Consequences  of  Slavery, 
531 ;  Note  on  Ship-Building,  540 ;  On  Manufactures,  and  other  Industry,  542. 


CHAPTER     IX. 

ALABAMA. 

Georgia  Rail-roads,  546;  Columbus — Manufacturing  Workmen,  547  ;  Mont- 
gomery, 549 ;  The  Alabama  River,  549 ;  Loading  Cotton,  550 ;  Value  of  Slaves 
secures  Care  of  them,  550 ;  Negro  Singers,  551 ;  Capacity  of  the  Negro.  552 ; 
Slave  High  Life,  554 ;  A  Negro  Lover,  554 ;  A  Negro  Overseeing  a  White 
Laborer.  555 ;  Natural  Affection  of  Slaves,  555 ;  Their  Loyalty  to  their 
Masters,  556;  Conversation  with  a  Good  Subject,  557;  The  Citizens,  559 ; 
Characteristics,  560  ;  A  Droll  Texan,  560  ;  How  he  talked,  501 ;   Not  a  Bet- 


CONTENTS.  XV 

ting,  but  a  Cotton  Man,  56:2 ;  Deck  Hands,  Negro  Jollity,  and  Wastefulness, 
564 ;  Mobile,  565  j  Passage  to  New  Orleans — Texan  Immigrants,  568  ;  Bad 
Speculation  -with  a  Negro,  570 ;  a  Peasant — Conversation  about  Slavery  and 
Abolition,  572. 


CHAPTER    X. 
ECONOMICAL    EXPERIENCE    OP    ALABAMA. 

Origin,  574 ;  Emigration,  576 ;  Present  Condition  and  Prospects,  576. 

CHAPTER     XI. 

LOUISIANA. 

New  Orleans,  578;  French  Aspect,  580;  The  Cathedral,  582;  Gradations  of 
Color  among  the  People,  583 ,  Pine  Negro  Stock,  584 ;  The  Slave  Trade, 
Economically,  585;  Could  Europeans  displace  Negroes  in  the  Climate,  586  ; 
Mechanics  and  Laborers,  587 ;  Competition  of  Free  and  Slave,  589 ;  Com- 
merce and  Slavery,  591 ;  The  Lorettcs,  594 ;  Licentiousness  and  Extrava- 
gance— Democratic  Education,  598  ;  Red  River  Emigrant  Craft,  603  ;  Uncle 
Tom  and  the  Vindication  ot  Slavery — a  Rebuff,  608 ;  Negro  Boat  Songs — 
Stowing  Away,  611 ;  Slave  Emigrants,  613 ;  A  Race,  614 ;  Sharp  Shooters, 
615 ;  Uncle  Tom  discussed,  617 ;  Another  Sort,  620 ;  A  Carlylist,  631 ;  Ele- 
ments of  Progress,  North  and  South,  621 ;  Rigolet  de  Bon  Dieu — Use  of  Claret 
— The  Temperance  Problem,  625;  Planting  and  Grazing,  628;  Negro  Cabins, 
629;  Positive  Morality,  A  Secret  Agent  of  Satan,  630;  Buying  the  Spanish 
Vote,  632  ;  Free  Colored  Slave-Owners,  632;  Conversation  with  a  Free  Ne- 
gro, 634;  Louisiana  Lawyers,  637;  Egyptians,  638;  White  Slaves,  640; 
Opelousas,  642;  Germans,  642;  Pleasant  Retirement,  643;  "Fights,"  644; 
Theology  and  Morality,  645 ;  A  Creole  Ball,  646 ;  Court,  646 ;  The  Nigger 
Trade.  647 ;  The  Creoles,  648 ;  Condition  of  their  Slaves,  650 ;  Planters  of 
Louisiana  and  Farmers  of  New  York  compared,  652 ;  Habits  of  the  Planters, 
652 ;  Cuba,  655 ;  Visit  to  a  Sugar  Plantation,  656 ;  Relation  of  Slaves  and 
Owner,  658 ;  Treatment  of  Slaves,  659 ;  Plantation  Economy,  660 ;  Sugar 
Cane,  663 ;  Economy  of  Louisiana,  664 ;  Cane  Culture,  665 ;  The  Grinding 
Season,  667 ;  Hard  Work  liked,  668 ;  Manufacture  of  Sugar,  670 ;  Acadiens, 
673  ;  Chicken  Thieves,  674 ;  Conversation  on  Slavery,  675 ;  Conversation  with 
a  Slave  about  Abolitionism.  677 ;  Expenses  of  Plantations,  686 ;  Condition 
of  Free  and  Slave  Laborers  compared,  688 ;  Slavery  no  Security  against 
Famine,  707;  Conclusion,  711 ;  Influence  of  Slavery  on  our  own  Labor, 
712 ;  Appendix,  717 ;  Appendix  A,  724.  *» 


"  Men  are  never  so  likely  to  settle  a  question  rightly  as  when  they 
discuss  it  freely." — Macaulay. 

"  You  have  among  you  many  a  purchased  slave, 
Which,  like  your  asses,  and  your  dogs,  and  mules, 
You  use  in  abject  and  in  slavish  parts, 
Because  you  bought  them  : 

"  So  do  I  answer  you. 
The  pound  of  flesh  which  I  demand  cf  him, 
Is  clearly  bought ;  'tis  mine,  and  I  will  have  it. 
If  you  deny  me,  fie  upon  your  law !" — Shylock.  - 

"  The  one  idea  which  History  exhibits  as  evermore  developing  itself 
into  greater  distinctness,  is  the  idea  of  humanity,  the  noble  endeavor  to 
throw  down  all  barriers  erected  between  men  by  prejudice  and  one-sided 
views,  and  by  setting  aside  the  distinctions  of  religion,  country,  and 
color,  to  treat  the  whole  human  race  as  one  Brotherhood,  having  one 
great  object — the  pure  development  of  our  spiritual  nature." — Hum- 
boldt's Cosmos. 


OUR  SLAVE   STATES. 


CHAPTER  I. 

INNS   AND    OUTS    OF    WASHINGTON. 

Gadsby's  Hotel,  Dec.  10. 

To  accomplish  the  purposes  which  brought  me  to  Washing- 
ton, it  was  necessary,  on  arriving  here,  to  make  arrangements 
to  secure  food  and  shelter  while  I  remained.  There  are  two 
thousand  of  us  visitors  in  Washington  under  a  similar  neces- 
sity. There  are  a  dozen  or  more  persons  who,  for  a  consid- 
eration, undertake  to  provide  what  we  want.  Mr.  Dexter  is 
reported  to  be  the  best  of  them,  and  really  seems  a  very 
obliging  and  honestly-disposed  person.  To  Mr.  Dexter,  there- 
fore, I  commit  myself. 

I   commit   myself    by   inscribing   my   name   in   a   Register. 

Five  minutes  after  I  have  done  so,  Clerk  No.  4,  whose  attention 

I  have  been  unable  to   obtain  any  sooner,  suddenly  catches  the 

Register  by  the  corner,  swings  it  round  with  a  jerk,  and  throws 

a   hieroglyphic    scrawl    at    it,    which   strikes   near   my   name. 

Henceforth,    I  figure  as    Boarder   No.  201,    (or   whatever  it 

may  be).      Clerk  No.  4  whistles    ("  Boarders,  away  !  "),    and 

throws  key,  No.  201  upon  the  table.     Turnkey  No.  3   takes 
1 


2  OUR      SLAVE      STATES. 

it,  and  me,  and  my  traveling  bag,  up  several  flights  of  stairs, 
along  corridors  and  galleries,  and  finally  consigns  me  to  this 
little  square  cell. 

I  have  faith  that  there  is  a  tight  roof  above  the  very  much 
cracked  ceiling ;  that  the  bed  is  clean ;  and  that  I  shall,  by- 
and-by,  be  summoned,  along  with  hundreds  of  other  persons,  to 
partake,  in  grandly  silent  sobriety,  of  a  very  sumptuous  dinner. 

Food  and  shelter.  Therewith  should  a  man  be  content. 
It  will  enable  me  to  accomplish  my  purpose  in  coming  to 
Washington.  But  my  perverse  nature  will  not  be  content : 
will  be  wishing  things  were  otherwise.  They  say  this  uneasi- 
ness— this  passion  for  change — is  a  peculiarity  of  our  diseased 
Northern  nature.  The  Southern  man  finds  Providence  in  all 
that  is :  Satan  in  all  that  might  be.  That  is  good ;  and,  as 
I  am  going  South,  when  I  have  accomplished  my  purposes 
at  Washington,  I  will  not  here  restrain  the  escape  of  my 
present  discontent. 

I  have  such  a  shockingly  depraved  nature  that  I  wish  the 
dinner  was  not  going  to  be  so  grand.  My  idea  is  that,  if 
it  were  not,  Mr.  Dexter  would  save  moneys,  which  I  would 
like  to  have  him  expend  in  other  ways.  I  wish  he  had  more 
clerks,  so  that  they  would  have  time  to  be  as  polite  to  an 
unknown  man  as  I  see  they  are  to  John  P.  Hale  ;  and,  at 
least,  answer  civil  questions,  when  his  guests  ask  them.  I  don't 
like  such  a  fearful  rush  of  business  as  there  is  down  stairs.  I 
wish  there  were  men  enough  to  do  the  work  quietly. 

I  don't  Hke  these  cracked  and  variegated  walls  ;  and,  though 
the  roof  may  be  tight,  I  don't  like  this  threatening  aspect 
of  the  ceiling.  It  should  be  kept  for  people  of  Damoclesian 
ambition  :    I  am  humble. 


INNS    AND    OUTS    OF    WASHINGTON.  6 

I  am  humble,  and  I  am  short,  and  soon  curried;  but  I 
am  not  satisfied  with  a  quarter  of  a  yard  of  toweling,  having 
an  irregular  vacancy  in  its  centre,  where  I  am  liable  to  insert 
my  head.  I  am  not  proud ;  but  I  had  rather  have  something 
else,  or  nothing,  than  these  three  yards  of  ragged  and  faded 
quarter-ply  carpeting.  I  also  would  like  a  curtain  to  the 
window,  and  I  wish  the  glass  were  not  so  dusty,  and  that 
the  sashes  did  not  rattle  so  in  their  casements ;  though,  as 
there  is  no  other  ventilation,  I  suppose  I  ought  not  to  complain. 
Of  course  not;  but  it  is  confoundedly  cold,  as  well  as  noisy. 
I  don't  like  that  broken  latch ;  I  don't  like  this  broken  chair  • 
I  would  prefer  that  this  table  were  not  so  greasy  in  its  appear- 
ance ;  I  would  rather  the  ashes  and  cinders,  and  the  tobacco  . 
juice  around  the  grate,  had  been  removed  before  I  was  consigned 
to  the  cell. 

I  wish  that  less  of  my  two  dollars  and  a  half  a  day  went 
to  pay  for  game  for  the  dinner,  and  the  interest  of  the  cost  of 
the  mirrors  and  mahogany  for  the  public  parlors,  and  of  marble 
for  the  halls,  and  more  of  it  for  providing  me  with  a  private 
room,  which  should  be  more  than  a  barely  habitable  cell,  which 
should  also  be  a  little  bit  tasteful,  home-like,  and  comfortable. 

SERVANTS. 

I  wish  more  of  it  was  expended  in  servants'  wages. 

Six  times  I  rang  the  bell;  three  several  times  came  three 
different  Irish  lads ;  entered,  received  my  demand  for  a  fire,  and 
retired.  I  was  writing,  shiveringly,  a  full  hour  before  the 
fire-man  came.  Now  he  has  entered,  bearing  on  his  head  a  hod 
of  coal  and  kindling  wood,  without  knocking.  An  aged  negro, 
more  familiar  and  more  indifferent  to  forms  of  subserviency  thai 


4  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

the  Irish  lads,  very  much  bent,  seemingly  with  infirmity,  an 
expression  of  impotent  anger  in  his  face,  and  a  look  of  weak- 
ness, like  a  drunkard's.  He  does  not  look  at  me,  but  mutters 
unintelligibly. 

"What's  that  you  say?" 

"  Tink  I  can  make  a  hundred  fires  at  once  ?" 

"  I  dont  want  to  sit  an  hour  waiting  for  a  fire,  after  I  have 
ordered  one,  and  you  must  not  let  me  again." 

"Nebber  let  de  old  nigger  have  no  ress — hundred  gemmen 
tink  I  kin  mak  dair  fires  all  de  same  minute ;  all  get  mad  at  an 
ole  nigger ;  I  ain't  a  goin  to  stan  it — nebber  get  no  ress — up  all 
night — haint  got  nautin  to  eat  nor  drink  dis  blessed  mornin— 
hundred  gemmen  — " 

"  That's  not  my  business  ;  Mr.  Dexter  should  have  more  serv- 
ants." 

"  So  he  ort  ter,  master,  dat  he  had,  one  ole  man  ain't  enough 
for  all  dis  house,  is  it  master?  hundred  gemmen  — " 

"  Stop — here's  a  quarter  for  you ;  now  I  want  you  to  look  out 
that  I  have  a  good  fire,  and  keep  the  hearth  clean  in  my  room  as 
long  as  I  stay  here.  And  when  I  send  for  you  I  want  you  to 
come  immediately.     Do  you  understand?" 

"  I'le  try,  master — you  jus  look  roun  and  fine  me  when  you 
want  yer  fire ;  I'll  be  roun  somewhere.  You  got  a  newspaper, 
Sir,  I  ken  take  for  a  minit ;  I  won't  hurt  it." 

I  gave  him  one ;  and  wondered  what  use  he  could  put  it  to, 
that  would  not  hurt  it.  He  opened  it  to  a  folio,  and  spread  it 
before  the  grate,  so  the  draft  held  it  in  place,  and  it  acted  as  a 
blower.  I  asked  if  there  were  no  blowers?  "No."  "But 
haven't  you  got  any  brush  or  shovel  ?"  I  inquired,  seeing  him 
get  down  upon  his  knees  again  and  sweep  the  cinders  and  ashes 


INNS    AND     OUTS    OF     WASHINGTON.  5 

he  had  thrown  upon  the  floor  with  the  sleeve  of  his  coat,  and  then 
take  them  up  with  his  hands ; — no,  he  said,  his  master  did  not 
give  him  such  things.     "Are  you  a  slave1?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"  Do  you  belong  to  Mr.  Dexter  V* 

"  No,  sir,  he  hires  me  of  de  man  dat  owns  me.  Don't  you  tink 
I'se  too  ole  a  man  for  to  be  knock  roun  at  dis  kind  of  work,  mas- 
sa? — hundred  gemmen  all  want  dair  fires  made  de  same  min- 
ute, and  caus  de  old  nigger  cant  do  it  all  de  same  minute,  ebbery 
one  tinks  dey's  boun  to  scold  him  all  de  time ;  nebber  no  rest 
for  him,  no  time." 

I  know  the  old  fellow  lied  somewhat,  for  I  saw  another  fireman 
in  Mr.  B.'s  room.  Was  that  quarter  a  good  investment,  or 
should  I  have  complained  at  the  office  ?  No,  they  are  too  busy 
to  listen  to  me,  too  busy,  certainly,  to  make  better  arrangements. 

It  is  time  for  me  to  call  on  Mr.  S. ;  the  fire  has  gone  out,  leav- 
ing a  fine  bituminous  fragrance  in  the  cell.  I  will  "  look  round" 
for  the  fireman,  as  I  travel  the  long  road  to  the  office,  and,  if  I  do 
not  find  him,  leave  an  order,  in  writing,  for  a  fire  to  be  made 
before  two  o'clock. 

A   MARYLAND    FARM. 

Washington,  Dec.  14th.  Called  on  Mr.  C,  whose  fine  farm, 
from  its  vicinity  to  Washington,  and  its  excellent  management, 
as  well  as  from  the  hospitable  habits  of  its  owner,  has  a  national 
reputation.  It  is  some  two  thousand  acres  in  extent,  and  situated 
just  without  the  District,  in  Maryland. 

The  residence  is  in  the  midst  of  the  farm,  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
from  the  high  road — the  private  approach  being  judiciously  carried 
through  large  pastures  which  are  divided  only  by  slight,  but  close 


b  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

and  well-secured,  wire  fences.  The  mansion  is  of  brick,  and,  as 
seen  through  the  surrounding  trees,  has  somewhat  the  look  of  an 
old  French  chateau.  The  kept  grounds  are  very  limited,  and  in 
simple  but  quiet  taste  ;  being  surrounded  only  by  wires,  they 
merge,  in  effect,  into  the  pastures.  There  is  a  fountain,  an  orna- 
mental dove-cote,  and  ice-house,  and  the  approach  road,  nicely 
graveled  and  rolled,  comes  up  to  the  door  with  a  fine  sweep. 

I  had  dismounted  and  was  standing  before  the  door,  when  I 
heard  myself  loudly  hailed  from  a  distance. 

"  Ef  yer  wants  to  see  Master,  sah,  he's  clown  thar — to  the  new 
stable." 

I  could  see  no  one  ;  and  when  I  was  tired  of  holding  my  horse, 
I  mounted,  and  rode  on  in  search  of  the  new  stable.  I  found  it 
without  difficulty  ;  and  in  it  Mr.  and  Mrs.  C.  With  them  were 
a  number  of  servants,  one  of  whom  now  took  my  horse  with 
alacrity.  I  was  taken  at  once  to  look  at  a  very  fine  herd  of  cows, 
and  afterwards  led  upon  a  tramp  over  the  farm,  and  did  not  get 
back  to  the  house  till  dinner  time. 

The  new  stable  is  most  admirably  contrived  for  convenience, 
labor-saving,  and  economy  of  space.  (Full  and  accurate  descrip- 
tions of  it,  with  illustrations,  have  been  given  in  several  agricultu- 
ral journals.)  The  cows  are  mainly  thorough-bred  Shorthorns, 
with  a  few  imported  Ayrshires  and  Alderneys,  and  some  small 
black  "natives."  I  have  seldom  seen  a  better  lot  of  milkers; 
they  are  kept  in  good  condition,  are  brisk  and  healthy,  docile  and 
kind,  soft  and  pliant  of  skin,  and  give  milk  up  to  the  very  eve  of 
calving ;  milking  being  never  interrupted  for  a  day.  Near  the 
time  of  calving  the  milk  is  given  to  the  calves  and  pigs.  The 
object  is  to  obtain  milk  only,  which  is  never  converted  into  but- 
ter or  cheese,  but  sent  immediately  to  town,  and  for  this  the 


INNS     AND     OUTS     OF     WASHINGTON.  7 

Shorthorns  are  found  to  be  the  most  profitable  breed.  Mr.  C. 
believes  that,  for  butter,  the  little  Alderneys,  from  the  peculiar  rich- 
ness of  their  milk,  would  be  the  most  valuable.  He  is,  probably, 
mistaken,  though  I  remember  that  in  Ireland  the  little  black 
Kerry  cow  was  found  fully  equal  to  the  Ayrshire  for  butter, 
though  giving  much  less  milk. 

There  are  extensive  bottom  lands  on  the  farm,  subject  to 
be  flooded  in  freshets,  on  which  the  cows  are  mainly  pas- 
tured in  summer.  Indian  corn  is  largely  sown  for  fodder, 
and,  during  the  driest  season,  the  cows  are  regularly  soiled 
with  it.  These  bottom  lands  were  entirely  covered  with  heavy 
wood,  until,  a  few  years  since,  Mr.  C.  erected  a  steam  saw-mill, 
and  has  lately  been  rapidly  clearing  them,  and  floating  off  the 
sawed  timber  to  market  by  means  of  a  small  stream  that  runs 
through  the  farm. 

The  low  land  is  much  of  it  drained,  underdrains  being  made 
of  rough  boards  of  any  desired  width  nailed  together,  so  that  a 
section  is  represented  by  the  inverted  letter  j^.  Such  covered 
drains  have  lasted  here  twenty  years  without  failing  yet,  but 
have  only  been  tried  where  the  flow  of  water  was  constant 
throughout  the  year. 

The  water  collected  by  the  drains  can  be,  much  of  it,  drawn 
into  a  reservoir,  from  which  it  is  forced  by  a  pump,  driven  by 
horse-power,  to  the  market-garden,  where  it  is  distributed  from 
several  fountain-heads,  by  means  of  hose,  and  is  found  of  great 
value,  especially  for  celery.  The  celery  trenches  are  arranged  in 
concentric  circles,  the  water-head  being  in  the  center.  The 
water-closets  and  all  the  drainage  of  the  house  are  turned  to 
good  account  in  the  same  way.  Mr.  C.  contemplates  extending 
his  water-pipes  to  some  of  his  meadow  lands.     Wheat  and  hay 


8  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

are  the  chief  crops  sold  off  the  farm,  and  the  amount  of  them 
produced  is  yearly  increasing. 

The  two  most  interesting  points  of  husbandry,  to  me,  were  the 
large  and  profitable  use  of  guano  and  bones,  and  the  great  extent 
of  turnip  culture.  Crops  of  one  thousand  and  twelve  hundred 
bushels  of  rata  baga  to  the  acre  have  been  frequent,  and  this  year 
the  whole  crop  of  the  farm  is  reckoned  to  be  over  thirty  thousand 
bushels ;  all  to  be  fed  out  to  the  neat  stock  between  this  time  and 
the  next  pasture  season.  The  soil  is  generally  a  red,  stiff  loam, 
with  an  occasional  stratum  of  coarse  gravel,  and,  therefore,  not 
the  most  favorable  for  turnip  culture.  The  seed  is  always 
imported,  Mr.  C.'s  experience,  in  this  respect,  agreeing  with  my 
own: — the  Euta  baga  undoubtedly  degenerates  in  our  climate. 
Bones,  guano,  and  ashes  are  used  in  connection  with  yard- 
dung  for  manure.  The  seed  is  sown  from  the  middle  to  the  last 
of  July  in  drills,  but  not  in  ridges,  in  the  English  way.  In  both 
these  respects,  also,  Mr.  C.  confirms  the  conclusions  I  have 
arrived  at  in  the  climate  of  New  York ;  namely,  that  ridges  are 
best  dispensed  with,  and  that  it  is  better  to  sow  in  the  latter  part 
of  July  than  in  June,  as  has  been  generally  recommended  in  our 
books  and  periodicals.  Last  year,  turnips  sown  on  the  20th 
July  were  larger  and  finer  than  others,  sown  on  the  same  ground, 
on  my  farm,  about  the  first  of  the  month.  This  year  I  sowed  in 
August,  and,  by  forcing  with  superphosphate — home  manufac- 
tured— and  guano,  obtained  a  fine  crop;  but  the  season  was 
unusually  favorable. 

Mr.  C.  always  secures  a  supply  of  turnips  that  will  allow  him 
to  give  at  least  one  bushel  a  day  to  every  cow  while  in  winter 
quarters.  The  turnips  are  sliced,  slightly  salted,  and  commonly 
mixed  with  fodder  and  meal.     Mr.   C.  finds  that  salting  the 


INNS    AND    OUTS    OF     WASHINGTON.  V 

sliced  turnip,  twelve  hours  before  it  is  fed,  effectually  prevents  its 
communicating  any  taste  to  the  milk.  This,  so  far  as  I  know, 
is  an  original  discovery  of  his,  and  is  one  of  great  value  to  dairy- 
men. In  certain  English  dairies  the  same  result  is  obtained,  where 
the  cows  are  fed  on  cabbages,  by  the  expensive  process  of  heat- 
ing the  milk  to  a  certain  temperature  and  then  adding  saltpetre. 

The  wheat  crop  of  this  district  has  been  immensely  increased, 
by  the  use  of  guano,  during  the  last  four  years.  On  this  farm 
it  has  been  largely  used  for  five  years ;  and  land  that  had  not  been 
cultivated  for  forty  years,  and  which  bore  only  broom-sedge — a 
thin,  worthless  grass — by  the  application  of  two  hundred  weight  of 
Peruvian  guano,  now  yields  thirty  bushels  of  wheat  to  an  acre. 

Mr.  C.'s  practice  of  applying  guano  differs,  in  some  particulars, 
from  that  commonly  adopted  here.  After  a  deep  plowing  of 
land  intended  for  wheat,  he  sows  the  seed  and  guano  at  the  same 
time,  and  harrows  both  in.  The  common  custom  here  is  to  plow 
in  the  guano,  six  or  seven  inches  deep,  in  preparing  the  ground 
for  wheat.  I  believe  Mr.  C.'s  plan  is  the  best.  I  have  myself 
used  guano  on  a  variety  of  soils  for  several  years  with  great 
success  for  wheat,  and  I  may  mention  the  practice  I  have  adopted 
from  the  outset,  and  with  which  I  am  well  satisfied.  It  strikes 
between  the  two  systems  I  have  mentioned,  and  I  think  is 
philosophically  right.  After  preparing  the  ground  with  plow 
and  harrow,  I  sow  wheat  and  guano  together,  and  plow  them  in 
with  a  gang-plow  which  covers  to  a  depth,  on  an  average,  of 
three  inches. 

Clover  seed  is  sowed  in  the  spring  following  the  wheat-sowing, 
and  the  year  after  the  wheat  is  taken  off,  this — on  the  old  sterile 
hills — grows  luxuriantly,  knee-high.     It  is  left  alone  for  two 

years,  neither  mown  nor  pastured ;  there  it  grows  and  there  it 
1* 


10  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

lies,  keeping  the  ground  moist  and  shady,  and  improving  it  on 
the  Gurney  principle. 

Mr.  C.  then  manures  with  dung,  bones,  and  guano,  and  with 
another  crop  of  wheat  lays  this  land  down  to  grass.  What  the 
ultimate  effect  of  this  system  will  be,  it  is  yet  too  early  to  say — 
but  Mr.  C.  is  pursuing  it  with  great  confidence. 

SLAVE    LABOR FIRST   IMPRESSIONS. 

Mr.  C.  is  a  large  hereditary  owner  of  slaves,  which,  for  ordinary 
field  and  stable-work,  constitute  his  laboring  force.  He  has 
employed  several  Irishmen  for  ditching,  and  for  this  work, 
and  this  alone,  he  thought  he  could  use  them  to  better  advantage 
than  negroes.  He  would  not  think  of  using  Irishmen  for  common 
farm-labor,  and  made  light  of  their  coming  in  competition  with 
slaves.  Negroes  at  hoeing  and  any  steady  field-work,  he  assured 
me,  would  "do  two  to  their  one;"  but  his  main  objection  to 
employing^nslimen  was  derived  from  his  experience  of  their 
unfaithfulness — they  were  dishonest,  would  not  obey  explicit 
directions  about  their  work,  and  required  more  personal  super- 
vision than  negroes.  From  what  he  had  heard  and  seen  of 
Germans,  he  supposed  they  did  better  than  Irish.  He  mentioned 
that  there  were  several  Germans  who  had  come  here  as  laboring 
men,  and  worked  for  wages  several  years,  who  had  now  got 
possession  of  small  farms,  and  were  reputed  to  be  getting 
rich.*    He  was  disinclined  to  converse  on  the  topic  of  slavery,  and 

*  "  There  is  asmall  settlement  of  Germans,  about  three  miles  from  me,  who,  a  few 
years  since  (with little  or  nothing  beyond  their  physical  abilities  to  aid  them) ,  seated 
themselves  down  in  a  poor,  miserable  old  field,  and  have,  by  their  industry,  an. 
meajis  obtained  by  working  round  among  the  neighbors,  effected  a  change  which 
is  really  surprising  and  pleasing  to  behold,  and  who  will,  I  have  no  doubt,  become 
wealthy,  provided  they  remain  prudent,  as  they  have  hitherto  been  industrious." 
— F.  A.  Clopper,  (Montgomery  Co.),  Maryland,  in  Patent  Of.  Kept.,  1851. 


INNS     AND     OUTS     OF     WASHINGTON.  xl 

I,  therefore,  made  no  inquiries  about  the  condition  and  habits  of 
his  negroes,  or  his  management  of  them.  They  seemed  to  live 
in  small  and  rude  log-cabins,  scattered  in  different  parts  of  the 
farm.  Those  I  saw  at  work  appeared  to  me  to  move  very  slowly 
and  awkwardly,  as  did  also  those  engaged  in  the  stable.  These, 
also,  were  very  stupid  and  dilatory  in  executing  any  orders  given 
to  them,  so  that  Mr.  C.  would  frequently  take  the  duty  off  their 
hands  into  his  own,  rather  than  wait  for  them,  or  make  them 
correct  their  blunders :  they  were  much,  in  these  respects,  like 
what  our  farmers  call  dumb  Paddies — that  is,  Irishmen  who  do 
not  readily  understand  the  English  language,  and  who  are  still 
weak  and  stiff  from  the  effects  of  the  emigrating  voyage.  At 
the  entrance-gate  wTas  a  porters  lodge,  and,  as  I  approached,  I 
saw  a  black  face  peeping  at  me  from  it,  but,  both  when  I  entered 
and  left,  I  was  obliged  to  dismount  and  open  the  gate  myself. 

Altogether,  it  struck  me — slaves  coming  here  as  they  naturally 
did  in  direct  comparison  with  free  laborers,  as  commonly  employed 
on  my  own  and  my  neighbor's  farms,  in  exactly  similar  duties — 
that  they  must  be  very  difficult  to  direct  efficiently,  and  that  it 
must  be  very  irksome  and  trying  to  one's  patience,  to  have  to 
superintend  their  labor. 

MARKET-DAY NEGROES    AND    LIVE    STOCK. 

Washington,  Dec.  16.  Visiting  the  market-place,  early  on 
Tuesday  morning,  I  found  myself  in  the  midst  of  a  throng 
of  a  very  different  character  from  any  I  have  ever  seen  at 
the  North.  The  majority  of  the  people  were  negroes,  and, 
taken  as  a  whole,  they  appeared  inferior  in  the  expression 
of  their  face  and  less  well-clothed  than  any  collection  of 
negroes   I   had  ever  seen  before.     All   the   negro   characteris- 


12  UR     SLAVE     STATES. 

tics  were  more  clearly  marked  in  each  than  they  often  are 
in  any  at  the  North.  In  their  dress,  language,  manner,  mo- 
tions— all  were  distinguishable  almost  as  much  by  their  color, 
from  the  white  people  who  were  distributed  among  them,  and 
engaged  in  the  same  occupations — chiefly  selling  poultry,  vege- 
tables, and  small  country-produce.  The  white  men  were, 
generally,  a  mean  looking  people,  and  but  meanly  dressed,  but 
differently  so  from  the  negroes. 

Most  of  the  produce  was  in  small,  rickety  carts,  drawn  by  the 
smallest,  ugliest,  leanest  lot  of  oxen  and  horses  that  I  ever  saw. 
There  was  but  one  pair  of  horses  in  over  a  hundred  that  were  tolera- 
bly good — a  remarkable  proportion  of  them  were  maimed  in  some 
way.  As  for  the  oxen,  I  do  not  believe  New  England  and  New 
York  together  could  produce  a  single  yoke  so  poor  as  the  best 
of  them. 

The  very  trifling  quantity  of  articles  brought  in  and  exposed 
for  sale  by  most  of  the  market-people  was  noticeable ;  a  peck  of 
potatoes,  three  bunches  of  carrots,  two  cabbages,  six  eggs  and  a 
chicken,  would  be  about  the  average  stock  in  trade  of  all  the 
dealers.  Mr.  F.  said  that  an  old  negro  woman  once  came  to  his 
door  with  a  single  large  turkey,  which  she  pressed  him  to  buy. 
Struck  with  her  fatigued  appearance,  he  made  some  inquiries  of 
her,  and  ascertained  that  she  had  been  several  days  coming  from 
home,  had  traveled  mainly  on  foot,  and  had  brought  the  turkey 
and  nothing  else  with  her.  "  Ole  massa  had  to  raise  some  money 
somehow,  and  he  could  not  sell  anyting  else,  so  he  tole  me  to 
catch  the  big  gobbler,  and  tote  um  down  to  Washington  and  see 
wot  um  would  fotch." 

The  prices  of  garden  productions  were  high,  compared  even 
with  New  York.     All  the  necessaries  of  life  are  very  expensive  in 


INNS     AND     OUTS     OF     WASHINGTON.  13 

Washington ;  great  complaint  is  made  of  exorbitant  rents,  and 
building-lots  are  said  to  have  risen  in  value  several  hundred  per 
cent,  within  five  or  six  years. 

The  population  of  the  city  is  now  over  50,000,  and  is  increasing 
rapidly.  There  seems  to  be  a  deficiency  of  tradespeople,  and  I 
have  no  doubt  the  profits  of  retailers  are  excessive.  There  is  one 
cotton  factory  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  employing  one 
hundred  and  fifty  hands,  male  and  female ;  a  small  foundry ;  a 
distillery  ;  and  two  tanneries — all  not  giving  occupation  to  fifty 
men  ;  less  than  two  hundred,  altogether,  out  of  a  resident  popu- 
lation of  nearly  150,000,  being  engaged  in  manufactures.  Very 
few  of  the  remainder  are  engaged  in  productive  occupations. 
There  is  water-power  near  the  city,  superior  to  that  of  Lowell, 
of  which,  at  present,  I  understand  that  no  use  at  all  is  made. 

LAND   AND    LABOR   IN    THE    DISTRICT. 

Land  may  be  purchased,  within  twenty  miles  of  Washington, 
at  from  ten  to  twenty  dollars  an  acre.  Most  of  it  has  been 
once  in  cultivation,  and,  having  been  exhausted  in  raising 
tobacco,  has  been,  for  many  years,  abandoned,  and  is  now  covered 
by  a  forest  growth.  Several  New  Yorkers  have  lately  specu- 
lated in  the  purchase  of  this  sort  of  land,  and,  as  there  is 
a  good  market  for  wood,  and  the  soil,  by  the  decay  of  leaves 
upon  it,  and  other  natural  causes,  has  been  restored  to  moderate 
fertility,  have  made  money  by  clearing  and  improving  it.  By 
deep  plowing  and  limeing,  and  the  judicious  use  of  manures,  it 
is  made  very  productive;  and,  as  equally  cheap  farms  can 
hardly  be  found  in  any  free  State,  in  such  proximity  to  so  high 
markets  for  agricultural  produce,  as  those  of  Washington  and 
Alexandria,   there    are    good    inducements   for   a   considerable 


14  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

Northern  immigration  hither.  It  may  not  he  long  hefore  a 
majority  of  the  inhabitants  will  he  opposed  to  Slavery,  and 
desire  its  abolition  within  the  District.  Indeed,  when  Mr. 
Seward  proposed  in  the  Senate  to  allow  them  to  decide  that 
matter,  the  advocates  of  '"'popular  sovereignty"  made  haste-  to 
vote  down  the  motion. 

There  are,  already,  more  Irish  and  German  laborers  and 
servants  than  slaves,  and,  as  many  of  the  objections  which  free 
laborers  have  to  going  further  South,  do  not  operate  in  Wash- 
ington, the  proportion  of  white  laborers  is  every  year  increas- 
ing. The  majority  of  servants,  however,  are  now  free  negroes, 
which  class  constitutes  one-fifth  of  the  entire  population.  The 
slaves  are  one-fifteenth,  but  are  mostly  owned  out  of  the  District, 
and  hired  annually  to  those  who  require  their  services.  In 
the  assessment  of  taxable  property,  for  1853,  the  slaves,  owned 
or  hired  in  the  District,  were  valued  at  three  hundred  thousand 
dollars. 

THE    NEGROES    OF   WASHINGTON. 

The  colored  population  voluntarily  sustain  several  churches, 
schools,  and  mutual  assistance  and  improvement  societies,  and 
there  are  evidently  persons  among  them  of  no  inconsiderable 
cultivation  of  mind.  Among  the  Police  Eeports  of  the  City 
newspapers,  there  was  lately  (April,  1855)  an  account  of  the 
apprehension  of  twenty-four  "genteel  colored  men"  (so  they 
were  described),  who  had  been  found  by  a  watchman  assembling 
privately  in  the  evening,  and  been  lodged  in  the  watch-house. 
The  object  of  their  meeting  appears  to  have  been  purely 
benevolent,  and,  when  they  were  examined  before  a  magistrate 
in  the  morniusr,  no  evidence  was  offered,  nor  does  there  seem 


INNS     AND     OUTS     OF     WASHINGTON.  15 

kc  have  been  any  suspicion  that  they  had  any  criminal  pur- 
pose. On  searching  their  persons,  there  were  found  a  Bible, 
a  volume  of  Seneca's  Morals;  Life  in  Earnest;  the  printed 
Constitution  of  a  Society,  the  object  of  -which  was  said  to  be 
"to  relieve  the  sick,  and  bury  the  dead;"  and  a  subscription  paper 
to  purchase  the  freedom  of  Eliza  Howard,  a  young  woman, 
whom  her  owner  was  willing  to  sell  at  $650. 

I  can  think  of  nothing  that  would  speak  higher  for  the 
character  of  a  body  of  poor  men,  servants  and  laborers,  than, 
to  find,  by  chance,  in  their  pockets,  just  such  things  as  these. 
And  I  cannot  value  that  man  as  a  countryman,  who  does  not  *( 
feel  intense  humiliation  and  indignation,  when  he  learns  that  / 
such  men  may  not  be  allowed  to  meet  privately  together,  with 
such  laudable  motives,  in  the  capital  city  of  the  United  States, 
without  being  subject  to  disgraceful  punishment.  Washington 
is,  at  this  time,  governed  by  the  Know  Nothings,  and  the 
magistrate,  in  disposing  of  the  case,  was  probably  actuated  by 
a  well-founded  dread  of  secret  conspiracies,  inquisitions,  and 
persecutions.  One .  of  the  prisoners,  a  slave  named  Joseph 
Jones,  he  ordered  to  be  flogged;  four  others,  called  in  the 
papers  free  men,  and  named  John  E.  Bennett,  Chester  Taylor, 
George  Lee,  and  Aquila  Barton,  were  sent  to  the  Work-house, 
and  the  remainder,  on  paying  costs  of  court,  and  fines,  amount- 
ing, in  the  aggregate,  to  one  hundred  and  eleven  dollars,  were 
permitted  to  range  loose  again. 


CHAPTER     II. 

VIRGINIA. 


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GLIMPSES     BY     EAIL-EOAD. 

Dec.  16th.  From  Washington  to  Richmond,  Virginia,  by  the 
regular  great  southern  route — steamboat  on  the  Potomac  to  Acquia 
Creek,  and  thence  direct  by  rail.  The  boat  makes  55  miles 
in  3-|-  hours,  including  two  stoppages  (12 J  miles  an  hour);  fare 
$2  (3-6  cents  a  mile).  Flat  rail;  distance,  75  miles;  time, 
51  hours  (13  miles  an  hour);   fare,  $3  50  (4|-  cents  a  mile). 

Not  more  than  a  third  of  the  country,  visible  on  this  route, 


VIRGINIA.  17 

I  should  say,  is  cleared;  the  rest  is  mainly  a  pine  forest.  Of 
the  cleared  land,  not  more  than  one  quarter  seems  to  have 
been  lately  in  cultivation;  the  rest  is  grown  over  with  briars 
and  bushes,  and  a  long,  coarse  grass  of  no  value.  But  two 
crops  seem  to  be  grown  upon  the  cultivated  land — maize  and 
wheat.  The  last  is  frequently  sown  in  narrow  beds  and 
carefully  surface-drained,  and  is  looking  remarkably  well. 

A  good  many  substantial  old  plantation  mansions  are  to  be 
seen;  generally  standing  in  a  grove  of  white  oaks,  upon  some 
hill-top.  Most  of  them  are  constructed  of  wood,  of  two  stories, 
painted  white,  and  have,  perhaps,  a  dozen  rude-looking  little 
log-cabins  scattered  around  them,  for  the  slaves.  Now  and 
then,  there  is  one  of  more  pretension,  with  a  large  porch  or 
gallery  in  front,  like  that  of  Mount  Vernon.  These  are 
generally  in  a  heavy,  compact  style;  less  often,  perhaps,  than 
similar  establishments  at  the  North ,  in  markedly  bad,  or  vulgar 
taste ;  but  seldom  elegant,  or  even  neat,  and  almost  always  in 
sad  need  of  repairs. 

The  more  common  sort  of  habitations  of  the  white  people 
are  either  of  logs  or  loosely-boarded  frames,  a  brick  chimney 
running  up  outside,  at  one  end:  everything  very  slovenly  and 
dirty  about  them.  Swine,  fox-hounds,  and  black  and  white 
children,  are  commonly  lying  very  promiscuously  together,  on 
the  ground  about  the  doors. 

I  am  struck  with  the  close  co-habitation  and  association  of 
black  and  white — negro  women  are  carrying  black  and  white 
babies  together  in  their  arms;  black  and  white  children  are 
playing  together  (not  going  to  school  together);  black  and 
white  faces  are  constantly  thrust  together  out  of  the  doors,  to 
see  the  train  go  by. 


18  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

A  fine-looking,  well-dressed,  and  well-behaved  colored  young 
man  sat,  together  with  a  white  man,  on  a  seat  in  the  cars.  I 
suppose  the  man  was  his  master;  but  he  was  much  the 
less  like  a  gentleman,  of  the  two.  The  rail-road  company 
advertise  to  take  colored  people  only  in  second  class  trains; 
but  servants  seem  to  go  with  their  masters  everywhere.  Once, 
to-day,  seeing  a  lady  entering  the  car  at  a  way-station,  with  a 
family  behind  her,  and  that  she  was  looking  about  to  find  a 
place  where  they  could  be  seated  together,  I  rose,  and  offered 
her  my  seat,  which  had  several  vacancies  around  it.  She 
accepted  it,  without  thanking  me,  and  immediately  installed  in 
it  a  stout  negro  woman;  took  the  adjoining  seat  herself,  and 
seated  the  rest  of  her  party  before  her.  It  consisted  of  a  white 
girl,  probably  her  daughter,  and  a  bright  and  very  pretty 
mulatto  girl.  They  all  talked  and  laughed  together,  and  the 
girls  munched  confectionery  out  of  the  same  paper,  with  a 
familiarity  and  closeness  of  intimacy  that  would  have  been 
notice'd  with  astonishment,  if  not  with  manifest  displeasure,  in 
almost  any  chance  company  at  the  North.  When  the  negro  is 
definitely  a  slave,  it  would  seem  that  the  alleged  natural 
antipathy  of  the  white  race  to  associate  with  him  is  lost. 

I  am  surprised  at  the  number  of  fine-looking  mulattoes,  or 
nearly  white  colored  persons,  that  I  see.  The  majority  of  those 
with  whom  I  have  come  personally  in  contact  are  such.  I  fancy 
I  see  a  peculiar  expression  among  these — a  contraction  of  the 
eyebrows  and  tightening  of  the  lips — a  spying,  secretive,  and 
counsel-keeping  expression. 

But  the  great  mass,  as  they  are  seen  at  work,  under  overseers, 
in  the  fields,  appear  very  dull,  idiotic,  and  brute-like;  and  it 
requires  an  effort  to  appreciate  that  they  are,  very  much  more 


VIRGINIA.  19 

than  the  beasts  they  drive,  our  brethren — a  part  of  ourselves. 
They  are  very  ragged,  and  the  women  especially,  who  work  in  the 
field  with  the  men,  with  no  apparent  distinction  in  their  labor, 
disgustingly  dirty.  They  seem  to  move  very  awkwardly,  slowly, 
and  undecidedly,  and  almost  invariably  stop  then1  work  while  the 
train  is  passing. 

One  tannery  and  two  or  three  'saw-mills  afforded  the  only 
indications  I  saw,  in  seventy-five  miles  of  this  old  country — ■ 
settled  before  any  part  of  Massachusetts — of  any  industrial 
occupation  other  than  corn  and  wheat  culture,  and  fire-wood 
chopping.  At  Fredericksburg  we  passed  through  the  streets  of 
a  rather  busy,  poorly-built  town;  but,  altogether,  the  country 
seen  from  the  rail-road,  bore  less  signs  of  an  active  and  prospering 
people  than  any  I  ever  traveled  through  before,  for  an  equal 
distance. 

RICHMOND,    AT   A    GLANCE. 

Eichmond,  at  a  glance  from  adjacent  high  ground,  through  a 
dull  cloud  of  bituminous  smoke,  upon  a  lowering  winter's  day, 
has  a  very  picturesque  appearance,  and  I  was  reminded  of  the 
sensation  produced  by  a  similar  coup  d'ceil  of  Edinburg.  It  is 
somewhat  similarly  situated  upon  and  among  some  considerable 
hills,  but  the  moment  it  is  examined  at  all  in  detail,  there  is  but 
one  spot,  in  the  whole  picture,  upon  which  the  eye  is  at  all 
attracted  to  rest.  This  is  the  Capitol,  an  imposing  Grecian 
edifice,  standing  alone,  and  finely  placed  on  open  and  elevated 
ground,  in  the  center  of  the  town.  It  was  built  soon  after  the 
Revolution,  and  the  model  was  obtained  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  then 
Minister  to  France,  from  the  Maison  Carree. 

A  considerable  part  of  the  town,  which  contains  a  population 


20  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

of  28,000,  is  compactly  and  somewhat  substantially  built,  but  is 
without  any  pretensions  to  architectural  merit,  except  in  a  few 
modern  private  mansions.  The  streets  are  not  paved,  and  but 
few  of  them  are  provided  with  side-walks  other  than  of  earth  or 
gravel.  The  town  is  lighted  with  gas,  and  furnished  with  excel- 
lent water  by  an  aqueduct. 

THE    CAPITOL. 

On  a  closer  view  of  the  Capitol,  a  bold  deviation  from  the 
Grecian  model  is  very  noticeable.  The  southern  portico  is 
sustained  upon  a  very  high  blank  wall,  and  is  as  inaccessible 
from  the  exterior  as  if  it  had  been  intended  to  fortify  the  edifice 
from  all  ingress  other  than  by  scaling-ladders.  On  coming  round 
to  the  west  side,  however,  which  is  without  a  colonnade,  a  grand 
entrance,  reached  by  a  heavy  buttress  of  stone  steps,  is  found. 
This  incongruity  diminishes,  in  some  degree,  the  usual  inconveni- 
ence of  the  Greek  temple  for  modern  public  purposes,  for  it  gives 
speedy  access  to  a  small  central  rotunda,  out  of  which  doors 
open  into  the  legislative  halls  and  offices. 

THE    "PUBLIC    GUARD,"    AND    WHAT   IT   MEANS. 

If  the  walling  up  of  the  legitimate  entrance  has  caused  the 
impression,  in  a  stranger,  that  he  is  being  led  to  a  prison  or 
fortress,  instead  of  the  place  for  transacting  the  public  business 
of  a  free  State  by  its  chosen  paid  agents,  it  is  not  removed  when, 
on  approaching  this  side  door,  he  sees  before  it  an  armed 
sentinel — a  meek-looking  man  in  a  livery  of  many  colors,  em- 
barrassed with  a  bright  bayonetted  firelock,  which  he  hugs 
gently,  as  though  the  cold  iron,  this  frosty  day,  chilled  his 
arm. 


VIRGINIA.  21 

He  belongs  to  the  Public  Guard  of  Virginia,  I  am  told ;  a  com- 
pany of  a  hundred  men  (more  or  less),  enlisted  under  an  Act  of 
the  State,  passed  in  1801,  after  a  rebellion  of  the  colored  people, 
who,  under  one  "  General  Gabriel,"  attempted  to  take  the  town, 
in  hopes  to  gain  the  means  of  securing  their  freedom.  Having 
been  betrayed  by  a  traitor,  as  insurgent  slaves  almost  always  are, 
they  were  met,  on  their  approach,  by  a  large  body  of  well-armed 
militia,  hastily  called  out  by  the  Governor.  For  this,  being 
armed  only  with  scythe-blades,  they  were  unprepared,  and 
immediately  dispersed.  "General  Gabriel"  and  the  other 
leaders,  one  after  another,  were  captured,  tried,  and  hanged,  the 
militia  in  strong  force  guarding  them  to  execution.  Since  then, 
a  disciplined  guard,  bearing  the  warning  motto,  "Sic  semper 
tyrannis  /"*  has  been  kept  constantly  under  arms  in  the  capital, 
and  no  man  can  enter  the  legislative  temple  of  Virginia  without 
being  reminded  that  "Eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of ." 

The  gentleman  who  gave  me  the  substance  of  this  information, 
spoke  of  the  Guard  with  an  admiring  and  gratulatory  tone,  as 
"our  little  army."  "But  how  is  that?"  I  inquired;  "does  not 
our  federal  Constitution  require  that  no  State  shall  keep  troops  in 
time  of  peace?     Is  not  your  little  army  unconstitutional?" 

I  could  get  no  satisfactory  reply ;  I  fear  it  was  hardly  in  good 
taste,  under  the  circumstances,  to  make  such  an  inquiry  of  a 
Virginia  democrat. 

PRETENSE    AND    PARSIMONY. 

It  was  not  till  I  had  passed  the  guard,  unchallenged,  and 
stood  at  the  door-way,  that  I  perceived  that  the  imposing  edi- 
fice, as  I  had  thought  it  at  a  distance,  was  nothing  but  a  cheap 

*  "  So  ever  to  tyrants,"  the  motto  on  the  seal  of  Virginia. 


22  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

stuccoed  building ;  nor  would  anything  short  of  test  by  touch, 
have  convinced  me  that  the  great  state  of  Virginia  would  have 
been  so  long  content  with  such  a  parsimonious  pretense  of  dig- 
nity as  is  found  in  imitation  granite  and  imitation  marble. 

There  is  an  instance  of  parsimony,  without  pretense,  in  Eicb 
mond,  which  Euskin,  himself,  if  he  were  a  traveler,  could  not  be 
expected  to  applaud.  The  rail-road  company  which  brings  the 
traveler  from  Washington,  so  far  from  being  open  to  the  criticism 
of  having  provided  edifices  of  a  style  of  architecture  only  fitted 
for  palaces,  instead  of  a  hall  suited  to  conflicts  with  hackney- 
coachmen,  actually  has  no  sort  of  stationary  accommodations  for 
them  at  all,  but  sets  them  down,  rain  or  shine,  in  the  middle  of 
one  of  the  main  streets.  The  adjoining  hucksteries,  barbers' - 
shops,  and  bar-rooms,  are  evidently  all  the  better  patronized 
for  this  fine  simplicity ;  but  I  should  doubt  if  the  rail-road 
stock  would  be  much  advanced  in  value  by  it. 

THE    3IODEL    AMERICAN. 

In  the  rotunda  of  the  Capitol  stands  Houdons  statue  of  Wash- 
ington. It  was  modeled  from  life,  and  is  said  to  present  the 
truest  similitude  of  the  American  Great  Man  that  is  retained 
for  posterity.  The  face  has  a  lofty,  serene,  slightly  saddened 
expression,  as  that  of  a  strong,  sensible  man  loaded,  but  not 
over-burdened,  with  cares  and  anxiety.  A  self-reliant,  brave, 
able  soul,  with  deep  but  subdued  sympathies,  comprehending 
great  duties,  calmly  and  confidently  prepared  to  perform  them. 
There  is  very  little  like  a  king,  or  a  clergyman,  or  any  other 
professional  character-actor  in  it.  In  most  of  the  portraits 
of  Washington,  he  looks  as  if  he  were  a  great  tragedian,  or  a 
high-priest ;  but  this  is  a  face  that  would  satisfy  and  encourage 


VIRGINIA.  23 

one  in  the  engine-driver  of  a  lightning  train,  or  the  officer  of 
the  deck  in  a  fog  off  Cape  Kace  ;  far-seeing,  vigilant  and  fervid, 
but  composed  and  perfectly  controlled — the  face  of  a  man, 
wherever  you  found  him — as  a  sailor,  or  a  schoolmaster,  or 
a  judge,  or  a  general — that  you  could  depend  upon  to  perform 
his  undertakings  conscientiously.  The  figure  is  not  good;  it 
struts,  and  has  an  air  of  nonchalance  and  ungentlemanly  assump- 
tion. This  was  the  fashion  of  the  age,  however,  and  education 
may  have  given  it  to  the  man,  though  his  character,  as  seen  with 
certainty  in  his  face,  is  far  superior  to  it. 

PUBLIC  GROUNDS THE  EED  CEDAE. 

The  grounds  about  the  Capitol  are  naturally  admirable,  and 
have  lately  been  improved  with  neatness  and  taste.  Their  beauty 
and  interest  would  be  greatly  increased  if  more  of  the  fine  native 
trees  and  shrubs  of  Virginia,  particularly  the  holly  and  the  ever- 
green magnolias,  were  planted  in  them.  I  noticed  these,  as  well 
as  the  Irish  and  palmated  ivy,  growing,  with  great  vigor  and 
beauty,  in  the  private  gardens  of  the  town.  On  some  high,  sterile 
lands,  of  which  there  are  several  thousand  acres,  uninclosed  and 
uncultivated,  near  the  town,  I  saw  a  group  of  exceedingly.beauti- 
ful  trees,  having  the  lively  green  and  all  the  lightness,  graceful- 
ness and  beauty  of  foliage,  in  the  Winter,  of  the  finest  deciduous 
trees.  I  could  not  belieye,  until  I  came  near  them,  that  they 
were  what  I  found  them  to  be — our  common  red  cedar  (Juni- 
perus  Virginiana).  I  have  frequently  noticed  that  the  beauty  of 
this  tree  is  greatly  affected  by  the  soil  it  stands  in ;  in  certain 
localities,  on  the  Hudson  river,  for  instance,  and  in  the  lower  part 
of  New  Jersey,  it  grows  in  a  perfectly  dense,  conical,  cypress- 
like form.     These,  on  the  other  hand,  were  square-headed,  dense, 


24  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

flattened  at  the  top,  like  the  cedar  of  Lebanon,  and  with  a  light 
and  slightly  drooping  spray,  deliciously  delicate  and  graceful, 
where  it  cut  the  light.  They  stood  in  a  soil  of  small  quartz 
gravel,  slightly  bound  with  red  clay.  In  a  soil  of  similar  appear- 
ance at  the  North,  cedars  are  usually  thin,  stiff,  shabby,  and  dull 
in  color.  I  notice  that  they  are  generally  finer  here,  than  we 
often  see  them  under  the  best  of  circumstances ;  and  I  presume 
they  are  better  suited  in  climate. 

A    NEGRO    FUNERAL. 

On  a  Sunday  afternoon  I  met  a  negro  funeral  procession,  and 
followed  after  it  to  the  place  of  burial.  There  was  a  decent 
hearse,  of  the  usual  style,  drawn  by  two  horses ;  six  hackney 
coaches  followed  it,  and  six  well-dressed  men,  mounted  on  hand- 
some saddle-horses,  and  riding  them  well,  rode  in  the  rear 
of  these.  Twenty  or  thirty  men  and  women  were  also  walking 
together  with  the  procession,  on  the  side-walk.  Among  all  there 
was  not  a  white  person. 

Passing  out  into  the  country,  a  little  beyond  the  principal 
cemetery  of  the  city  (a  neat,  rural  ground,  well  filled  with  monu 
ments  and  evergreens),  the  hearse  halted  at  a  desolate  place, 
where  a  dozen  colored  people  were  already  engaged  heaping  the 
earth  over  the  grave  of  a  child,  and  singing  a  wild  kind  of 
chant.  Another  grave  was  already  dug,  immediately  adjoining 
that  of  the  child,  both  being  near  the  foot  of  a  hill,  in  a  crumbling 
bank — the  ground  below  being  already  occupied,  and  the  graves 
advancing  in  irregular  terraces  up  the  hill-side — an  arrangement 
which  facilitated  Jabor. 

The  new  comers,  setting  the  coffin — which  was  neatly  made  of 
stained  pine — upon  the  grp-und,  joined  in  the  labor  and  the  sing- 


VIRGINIA.  25 

ing,  with  the  preceding  party,  until  a  small  mound  of  earth  was 
made  over  the  grave  of  the  child.  When  this  was  completed, 
one  of  those  who  had  heen  handling  a  spade,  sighed  deeply  and 
said, 

"Lord  Jesus  have  marcy  on  us — now!  you  Jim — you!  see 
yar;  you  jes  lay  dat  yar  shovel  cross  dat  grave — so  fash — 
dah — yes,  dat's  right." 

A  shovel  and  a  hoe-handle  having  been  laid  across  the 
unfilled  grave,  the  coffin  was  brought  and  laid  upon  them,  as 
on  a  trestle ;  after  which,  lines  were  passed  under  it,  by  Avhich  it 
was  lowered  to  the  bottom. 

Most  of  the  company  were  of  a  very  poor  appearance,  rude 
and  unintelligent,  but  there  'were  several  neatly-dressed  and  very 
good-looking  men.  One  of  these  now  stepped  to  the  head  of  the 
grave,  and,  after  a  few  sentences  of  prayer,  held  a  handkerchief 
before  him  as  if  it  were  a  book,  and  pronounced  a  short  exhorta- 
tion, as  if  he  were  reading  from  it.  His  manner  was  earnest, 
and  the  tone  of  his  voice  solemn  and  impressive,  except  that, 
occasionally,  it  would  break  into  a  shout  or  kind  of  howl  at  the 
close  of  a  long  sentence.  I  noticed  several  women  near  him, 
weeping,  and  one  sobbing  intensely.  I  was  deeply  influenced 
myself  by  the  unaffected  feeling,  in  connection  with  the  simplicity, 
natural,  rude  truthfulness,  and  absence  of  all  attempt  at  formal 
decorum  in  the  crowd. 

I  never  in  my  life,  however,  heard  such  ludicrous  language 
as  was  sometimes  uttered  by  the  speaker.  Frequently  I 
could  not  guess  the  idea  he  was  intending  to  express.  Some- 
times it  was  evident  that  he  was  trying  to  repeat  phrases  that 
he  had  heard  used  before,  on  similar  occasions,  but  which  he 

made  absurd  by  some  interpolation  or   distortion  of  a  word; 

2 


26  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

thus,  "  We  do  not  see  the  end  here !  oh  no,  my  friends !  there 
■will  be  a  putrificaticm  of  this  body !"  the  context  fairing  to  indicate 
whether  he  meant  purification  or  putrefaction,  and  leaving  it 
doubtful  if  he  attached  any  definite  meaning  to  the  word  himself. 
He  quoted  from  the  Bible  several  times,  several  times  from  hymns, 
always  introducing  the  latter  with  "  in  the  words  of  the  poet,  my 
brethren ;"  he  once  used  the  same  form,  before  a  verse  from  the 
New  Testament,  and  once  qualified  his  citation  by  saying,  "  I 
believe  the  Bible  says  that;"  in  which  he  was  right,  having 
repeated  words  of  Job. 

He  concluded  by  throwing  a  handful  of  earth  on  the 
coffin,  repeating  the  usual  words,  slightly  disarranged,  and 
then  took  a  shovel,  and,  with  the  aid  of  six  or  seven  others, 
proceeded  very  rapidly  to  fill  the  grave.  Another  man  had, 
in  the  mean  time,  stepped  into  the  place  he  had  first  occupied  at 
the  head  of  the  grave ;  an  old  negro,  with  a  very  singularly 
distorted  face,  who  raised  a  hymn,  which  soon  became  a  confused 
chant — the  leader  singing  a  few  words  alone,  and  the  company 
then  either  repeating  them  after  him  or  making  a  response  to 
them,  in  the  manner  of  sailors  heaving  at  the  windlass.  I 
could  understand  but  very  few  of  the  words.  The  music  was 
wild  and  barbarous,  but  not  without  a  plaintive  melody.  A  new 
leader  took  the  place  of  the  old  man,  when  his  breath  gave  out 
(he  had  sung  very  hard,  with  much  bending  of  the  body  and 
gesticulation),  and  continued  until  the  grave  was  filled,  and 
a  mound  raised  over  it. 

A  man  had,  in  the  mean  time,  gone  into  a  ravine  near 
by,  and  now  returned  with  two  small  branches,  hung  with 
withered  leaves,  that  he  had  broken  off  a  beech  tree  ;  these 
were   placed  upright,  one  at  the  head,  the  other  at  the  foot 


VIRGINIA.  27 

of  the  grave.  A  few  sentences  of  prayer  were  then  repeated 
in  a  low  voice  by  one  of  the  company,  and  all  dispersed.  No 
one  seemed  to  notice  my  presence  at  all.  There  were  about  fifty 
colored  people  in  the  assembly,  and  but  one  other  white  man 
besides  myself.  This  man  lounged  against  the  fence,  outside 
the  crowd,  an  apparently  indifferent  spectator,  and  I  judged  he  was 
a  police  officer,  or  some  one  procured  to  witness  the  funeral,  in 
compliance  with  the  law  which  requires  that  a  white  man  shall 
always  be  present  at  any  meeting,  for  religious  exercises,  of  the 
negroes,  to  destroy  the  opportunity  of  their  conspiring  to  gain 
their  freedom. 

DRESS    OF    THE    SLAVES. 

The  greater  part  of  the  colored  people,  on  Sunday,  seemed  to 
be  dressed  in  the  cast-off  fine  clothes  of  the  white  people,  received, 
I  suppose,  as  presents,  or  purchased  of  the  Jews,  whose  shops 
show  that  there  must  be  considerable  importation  of  such  articles, 
probably  from  the  ISTorth,  as  there  is  from  England  into  Ireland. 
Indeed,  the  lowest  class,  especially  among  the  younger,  remind 
me  much,  by  their  dress,  of  the  "  lads"  of  Donnybrook ;  and  when 
the  funeral  procession  came  to  its  destination,  there  was  a  scene 
precisely  like  that  you  may  see  every  day  in  Sackville-street, 
Dublin, — a  dozen  boys  in  ragged  clothes,  originally  made  for 
tall  men,  and  rather  folded  round  their  bodies  than  worn,  striving 
who  should  hold  the  horses  of  the  gentlemen  when  they  dismounted 
to  attend  the  interment  of  the  body.  Many,  who  had  probably 
come  in  from  the  farms  near  the  town,  wore  clothing  of  coarse 
gray  "negro-cloth,"  that  appeared  as  if  made  by  contract,  without 
regard  to  the  size  of  the  particular  individual  to  whom  it  had 
been  allotted,  like  penitentiary  uniforms.     A  few  had  a  better  suit 


28  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

of  coarse  blue  cloth,  expressly  made   for   them  evidently,  for 
"  Sunday  clothes." 

DANDIES. 

Some  were  dressed  with  laughably  foppish  extravagance, 
and  a  great  many  in  clothing  of  the  most  expensive  materials, 
and  in  the  latest  style  of  fashion.  In  what  I  suppose  to  be  the 
fashionable  streets,  there  were  many  more  well-dressed  and 
highly-dressed  colored  people  than  white,  and  among  this  dark 
gentry  the  finest  French  cloths,  embroidered  waistcoats,  patent- 
leather  shoes,  resplendent  brooches,  silk  hats,  kid  gloves,  and  eau 
de  mille  fleurs,  were  quite  as  common  as  among  the  New  York  "  dry- 
goods  clerks,"  in  their  Sunday  promenades,  in  Broadway.  Nor  was 
the  fairer,  or  rather  the  softer  sex,  at  all  left  in  the  shade  of  this 
splendor.  Many  of  the  colored  ladies  were  dressed  not  only 
expensively,  but  with  good  taste  and  effect,  after  the  latest 
Parisian  mode.  Many  of  them  were  quite  attractive  in  appear- 
ance, and  some  would  have  produced  a  decided  sensation  in  any 
European  drawing-room.  Their  walk  and  carriage  was  more 
often  stylish  and  graceful  than  that  of  the  white  ladies  who  were 
out.  About  one  quarter  seemed  to  me  to  have  lost  all  distin- 
guishingly  African  peculiarity  of  feature,  and  to  have  acquired,  in 
place  of  it,  a  good  deal  of  that  voluptuousness  of  expression 
which  characterizes  many  of  the  women  of  the  south  of  Europe. 
I  was  especially  surprised  to  notice  the  frequency  of  thin,  aquiline 
noses. 

"WHITE    AND    BLACK    IN    THE    STREETS. 

There  was  no  indication  of  their  belonging  to  a  subject  race, 
but  that  they  invariably  gave  the  way  to  the  white  people  they 
met.     Once,  when  two  of  them,  engaged  in  conversation  and 


VIRGINIA.  29 

looking  at  each  other,  had  not  noticed,  his  approach,  I  saw  a 
Virginia  gentleman  lift  his  cane  and  push  a  woman  aside  with  it. 
In  the  evening  I  saw  three  rowdies,  arm-in-arm,  taking  the  whole 
of  the  sidewalk,  hustle  a  Hack  man  off  it,  giving  him  a  blow,  as 
they  passed,  that  sent  him  staggering  into  the  middle  of  the 
street.  As  he  recovered  himself  he  began  to  call  out  to,  and  threaten 
them.  Perhaps  he  saw  me  stop,  and  thought  I  should  support 
him,  as  I  was  certainly  inclined  to :  "  can't  you  find  anything 
else  to  do  than  to  be  knockin'  quiet  people  round!  You  jus' 
come  back  here,  will  you?  Here,  you!  don't  care  if  you  is 
ivhite.  You  jus'  come  back  here  and  I'll  teach  you  how  to 
behave — knockin'  people  round ! — don't  care  if  I  does  hab  to  go 
to  der  watch-house."  They  passed  on  without  noticing  him 
further,  only  laughing  jeeringly — and  he  continued :  "  You  come 
back  here  and  I'll  make  you  laugh ;  you  is  jus'  three  white 
nigger  cowards,  dat's  what  you  be." 

I  observe,  in  the  newspapers,  complaints  of  growing  insolence 
and  insubordination  among  the  negroes,  arising,  it  is  thought,  from 
too  many  privileges  being  permitted  them  by  their  masters,  and 
from  too  merciful  administration  of  the  police  laws  with  regard  to 
them.  Except  in  this  instance,  however,  I  have  seen  not  the 
slightest  evidence  of  any  independent  manliness  on  the  part  of  the 
negroes  towards  the  whites.  As  far  as  I  have  yet  observed,  they 
are  treated  very  kindly  and  even  generously  as  servants,  but 
their  manner  to  white  people  is  invariably  either  sullen,  jocose,  or 
fawning. 

The  pronunciation  and  dialect  of  the  negroes,  here,  is  gene- 
rally much  more  idiomatic  and  peculiar  than  with  us.  As  I 
write,  I  hear  a  man  shouting,  slowly  and  deliberately,  meaning 
to  say  there :  dah  !  dah  !  dah  ! 


SO  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

SLAVES    AS    MERCHANDISE. 

Yesterday  morning,  during  a  cold,  sleety  storm,  against  which 
I  was  struggling,  with  my  umbrella,  to  the  post  office,  I  met  a 
comfortably-dressed  negro  leading  three  others  by  a  rope;  the 
first  was  a  middle-aged  man;  the  second  a  girl  of,  perhaps, 
twenty;  and  the  last  a  boy,  considerably  younger.  The  arms 
of  all  three  were  secured  before  them  with  hand-cuffs,  and  the 
rope  by  which  they  were  led  passed  from  one  to  another ;  being 
made  fast  at  each  pair  of  hand-cuffs."  They  were  thinly  clad, 
the  girl  especially  so,  having  only  an  old  ragged  handkerchief 
around  her  neck,  over  a  common  calico  dress,  and  another 
handkerchief  twisted  around  her  head.  They  were  dripping 
wet,  and  icicles  were  forming,  at  the  time,  on  the  awning  bars. 

The  boy  looked  most  dolefully,  and  the  girl  was  turning 
around,  with  a  very  angry  face,  and  shouting,  "0  pshaw! 
Shut  up!" 

"What  are  they?"  said  I,  to  a  white  man,  who  had  also 
stopped,  for  a  moment,  to  look  at  them.  "  What's  he  going  to 
do  with  them?" 

"  Come  in  a  canal  boat,  I  reckon  :  sent  down  here  to  be  sold. 
— That  ar's  a  likely  gall." 

Our  ways  lay  together,  and  I  asked  further  explanation. 
He  informed  me  that  the  negro-dealers  had  confidential  servants 
always  in  attendance,  on  the  arrival  of  the  rail-road  trains  and 
canal  packets,  to  take  any  negroes,  that  might  have  come, 
consigned  to  them,  and  bring  them  to  their  marts. 

Nearly  opposite  the  post  office,  was  another  singular  group 
of  negroes.  They  were  all  men  and  boys,  and  each  carried  a 
coarse,  white  blanket,  drawn  together  at  the  corners  so  as  to 
hold  some  articles ;  probably,  extra  clothes.     They  stood  in  a 


VIRGINIA.  31 

row,  in  lounging  attitudes,  and  some  of  them,  again,  were 
quarreling,  or  reproving  one  another.  A  villainous-looking 
white  man  stood  in  front  of  them.  Presently,  a  stout,  respectable 
man,  dressed  in  black  according  to  the  custom,  and  without  any 
overcoat  or  umbrella,  but  with  a  large,  golden-headed  walking- 
stick,  came  out  of  the  door  of  an  office,  and,  without  saying  a 
word,  walked  briskly  up  the  street;  the  negroes  immediately 
followed,  in  file;  the  other  white  man  bringing  up  the  rear. 
They  were  slaves  that  had  been  sent  into  the  town  to  be  hired 
out  as  servants  or  factory  hands.  The  gentleman  in  black  was, 
probably,  the  broker  in  the  business. 

Near  the  post  office,  opposite  a  large  livery  and  sale  stable, 
I  turned  into  a  short,  broad  street,  in  which  were  a  number  of 
establishments,  the  signs  on  which  indicated  that  they  were 
occupied  by  "  Slave  Dealers,"  and  that  "  Slaves,  for  Sale  or  to 
Hire,"  were  to  be  found  within  them.  They  were  much  like 
Intelligence  Offices,  being  large  rooms  partly  occupied  by 
ranges  of  forms,  on  which  sat  a  few  comfortably  and  neatly  clad 
negroes,  who  appeared  perfectly  cheerful ;  each  grinning  obsequi- 
ously, but  with  a  manifest  interest  or  anxiety,  when  I  fixed  my 
eye  on  them  for  a  moment. 

In  Chambers'  Journal  for  October,  1853,  there  is  an  account 
of.  the  Richmond  slave  marts,  and  the  manner  of  conducting 
business  in  them,  so  graphic  and  evidently  truthful  that  I 
omit  any  further  narration  of  my  own  observations,  to  make 
room  for  it.  I  do  this,  notwithstanding  its.  lengthy  because  I 
(hd__not  happen  to  witness,  during  fourteen  months  that  I 
spent  in  the  Slave  States,  any  sale  of  negroes  by  auction. 
This  must  not  be  taken  as  an  indication  that  negro  auctions 
are  not   of  frequent  occurrence   (I   did  not,   so   far   as  I  now 


32  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

recollect,  witness  the  sale  of  anything  else,  at  auction,  at 
the  South).  I  saw  negroes  advertised  to  be  sold  at  auction, 
very  frequently. 

"  The  exposure  of  ordinary  goods  in  a  store  is  not  more  open  to 
the  public  than  are  the  sales  of  slaves  in  Richmond.  By  consulting 
the  local  newspapers,  I  learned  that  the  sales  take  place  by  auction 
every  morning  in  the  offices  of  certain  brokers,  who,  as  I  understood 
by  the  terms  of  their  advertisements,  purchased  or  received  slaves 
for  sale  on  commission. 

"Where  the  street  was  in  which  the  brokers  conducted  their  busi- 
ness, I  did  not  know  ;  but  the  discovery  was  easily  made.  Ram- 
bling down  the  main  street  in  the  city,  I  found  that  the  subject  of  my 
search  was  a  narrow  and  short  thoroughfare,  turning  off  to  the  left, 
and  terminating  in  a  similar  cross  thoroughfare.  Both  streets,  lined 
with  brick-houses,  were  dull  and  silent.  There  was  not  a  person  to 
whom  I  could  put  a  question.  Looking  about,  I  observed  the  office 
of  a  commission-agent,  and  into  it  I  stepped.  Conceive  the  idea  of 
a  large  shop  with  two  windows,  and  a  door  between ;  no  shelving  or 
counters  inside  ;  the  interior  a  spacious,  dismal  apartment,  not  well 
swept ;  the  only  furniture  a  desk  at  one  of  the  windows,  and  a  bench 
at  one  side  of  the  shop,  three  feet  high,  with  two  steps  to  it  from 
the  floor.  I  say,  conceive  the  idea  of  this  dismal-looking  place, 
With  nobody  in  it  but  three  negro  children,  who,  as  I  entered,  were 
playing  at  auctioneering  each  other.  An  intensely  black  little  negro, 
of  four  or  five  years  of  age,  was  standing  on  the  bench,  or  block,  as 
it  is  called,  with  an  equally  black  girl,  about  a  year  younger,  by  his 
side,  whom  he  was  pretending  to  sell  by  bids  to  another  black  child, 
who  was  rolling  about  the  floor. 

"  My  appearance  did  not  interrupt  the  merriment.  The  little 
auctioneer  continued  his  mimic  play,  and  aj>peared  to  enjoy  the  joke 
of  selling  the  girl,  who  stood  demurely  by  his  side. 

"  '  Fifty  dolla  for  de  gal — fifty  dolla — fifty  dolla — I  sell  dis  here 
fine  gal  for  fifty  dolla,'  was  uttered  with  extraordinary  volubility  by 
the  woolly-headed  urchin,  accompanied  with  appropriate  gestures, 
in  imitation,  doubtless  of  the  scenes  he  had  seen  enacted  daily  in 
the  spot.  I  spoke  a  few  words  to  the  little  creatures,  but  was 
scarcely  understood ;  and  the  fun  went  on  as  if  I  had  not  been  pres- 


VIRGINIA.  33 

ent :  so  I  left  them,  happy  in  rehearsing  what  was  likely  soon  to  be 
their  own  fate. 

"  At  another  office  of  a  similar  character,  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  street,  I  was  more  successful.  Here,  on  inquiry,  I  was  respect- 
fully informed,  by  a  person  in  attendance,  that  the  sale  would  take 
place  the  following  morning  at  half-past  nine  o'clock. 

"  Next  day  I  set  out  accordingly,  after  breakfast,  for  the  scene  of 
operations,  in  which  there  was  now  a  little  more  life.  Two  or  three 
persons  were  lounging  about,  smoking  cigars ;  and,  looking  along 
the  street,  I  observed  that  three  red  flags  were  projected  from  the 
doors  of  those  offices  in  which  sales  were  to  occur.  On  each  flag 
was  pinned  a  piece  of  paper,  notifying  the  articles  to  be  sold.  The 
number  of  lots  was  not  great.  On  the  first  was  the  following  an- 
nouncement:— '  Will  be  sold  this  morning,  at  half-past  nine  o'clock, 
a  Man  and  a  Boy.' 

"  It  was  already  the  appointed  hour  ;  but  as  no  company  had  as- 
sembled, I  entered  and  took  a  seat  by  the  fire.  The  office,  provided 
with  a  few  deal  forms  and  chairs,  a  desk  at  one  of  the  windows,  and 
a  block  accessible  by  a  few  steps,  was  tenantless,  save  by  a  gentle- 
man who  was  arranging  papers  at  the  desk,  and  to  whom  I  had  ad- 
dressed myself  on  the  previous  evening.  Minute  after  minute  passed, 
and  still  nobody  entered.  There  was  clearly  no  hurry  in  going  to 
business.  I  felt  almost  like  an  intruder,  and  had  formed  the  resolu- 
tion of  departing,  in  order  to  look  into  the  other  offices,  when  the  per- 
son referred  to  left  his  desk,  and  came  and  seated  himself  opposite 
to  me  at  the  fire. 

"  '  You  are  an  Englishman,'  said  he,  looking  me  steadily  in  the 
face  ;  '  do  you  want  to  purchase  ?' 

"  '  Yes,'  I  replied,  '  I  am  an  Englishman  ;  but  I  do  not  intend  to 
purchase.  I  am  traveling  about  for  information,  and  I  shall  feel 
obliged  by  your  letting  me  know  the  prices  at  which  negro  servants 
are  sold.'  s 

"'  I  will  do  so  with  much  pleasure,' was  the  answer;  'do  you 
mean  field-hands  or  house-servants  ?' 

"  '  All  kinds,'  I  replied  ;  '  I  wish  to  get  all  the  information  I  can. 

"With  much  politeness,  the  gentleman  stepped  to  his  desk,  and 
began  to  draw  up  a  note  of  prices.  This,  however,  seemed  to  re- 
quire careful  consideration ;  and  while  the  note  was  preparing,  a 
lanky  person,  in  a  wide-awake  hat,  and  chewing  tobacco,  entered, 
2* 


34  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

and  took  the  chair  just  vacated.  He  had  scarcely  seated  himself, 
when,  on  looking  towards  the  door,  I  observed  the  subjects  of  sale — 
the  man  and  boy  indicated  by  the  paper  on  the  red  flag — enter  to- 
gether, and  quietly  walk  to  a  form  at  the  back  of  the  shop,  whence, 
as  the  day  was  chilly,  they  edged  themselves  towards  the  fire,  in 
the  corner  where  I  was  seated.  I  was  now  between  the  two  parties — 
the  white  man  on  the  right,  and  the  old  and  young  negro  on  the 
Left — and  I  waited  to  see  what  would  take  place. 

"  The  sight  of  the  negroes  at  once  attracted  the  attention  of  Wide- 
awake. Cbewing  with  vigor,  he  kept  keenly  eying  the  pair,  as  if  to 
see  what  they  were  good  for.  Under  this  searching  gaze,  the  man 
and  boy  were  a  little  abashed,  but  said  nothing.  Their  appearance 
had  little  of  the  repulsiveness  we  are  apt  to  associate  with  the  idea 
of  slaves.  They  were  dressed  in  a  gray  woolen  coat,  pants,  and 
waistcoat,  colored  cotton  neckcloths,  clean  shirts,  coarse  woolen 
stockings,  and  stout  shoes.  The  man  wore  a  black  hat ;  the  boy 
was  bareheaded.  Moved  by  a  sudden  impulse,  Wide-awake  left  his 
seat,  and  rounding  the  back  of  my  chair,  began  to  grasp  at  the 
man's  arms,  as  if  to  feel  their  muscular  capacity.  He  then  examined 
his  hands  and  fingers  ;  and,  last  of  all,  told  him  to  open  his  mouth 
and  show  his  teeth,  which  he  did  in  a  submissive  manner.  Having 
finished  these  examinations,  Wide-awake  resumed  his  seat,  and 
chewed  on  in  silence  as  before. 

"  I  thought  it  was  but  fair  that  I  should  now  have  my  turn  of  in- 
vestigation, and  accordingly  asked  the  elder  negro  what  was  his  age. 
He  said  he  did  not  know.  I  next  inquired  how  old  the  boy  was. 
He  said  he  was  seven  years  of  age.  On  asking  the  man  if  the  boy 
was  his  son,  he  said  he  was  not — he  was  his  cousin.  I  was  going 
into  other  particulars,  when  the  office-keeper  approached,  and  hand- 
ed me  the  note  he  had  been  preparing ;  at  the  same  time  making 
the  observation  that  the  market  was  dull  at  present,  and  that  there 
never  could  be  a  more  favorable  opportunity  of  buying.  I  thanked 
him  for  the  trouble  which  he  had  taken ;  and  now  submit  a  copy  of 
his  price-current : 

•  Best  Men,  18  to  25  years  old,      .        .        1200  to  1300  dollars. 
Fair    do.        do.  do.,       .        .         .    950  to  1050      " 

Boys,  5  feet 850  to    950      " 

Do.,    4  feet  8  inches 700  to    800      " 

Do.,    4  feet  5  inches,    .        .        .  500  to    600      " 


VIRGINIA.  35 

Boy3,  4  feet, 375  to    450  dollars. 

Young  Women, 800  to  1000      " 

Girls,  5  feet, 750  to    850      " 

Do.,    4  feet  9  inches,    ....  700  to    750      " 

Do.,    4  feet, 350  to    452      " 

'  (Signed)  , 

Richmond,  Virginia.' 

"  Leaving  this  document  for  future  consideration,  I  pass  on  to  a 
nistory  of  the  day's  proceedings.  It  was  now  ten  minutes  to  ten 
o'clock,  and  Wide-awake  and  I  being  alike  tired  of  waiting,  we  went 
off  in  quest  of  sales  further  up  the  street.  Passing  the  second  office, 
in  which  also  nobody  was  to  be  seen,  we  were  more  fortunate  at  the 
third.  Here,  according  to  the  announcement,  on  the  paper  stuck  to  the 
flag,  there  were  to  be  sold,  '  A  woman  and  three  children  ;  a  young 
woman,  three  men,  a  middle-aged  woman,  and  a  little  boy.'  Already 
a  crowd  had  met,  composed,  I  should  think,  of  persons  mostly  from 
the  cotton-plantations  of  the  south.  A  few  were  seated  near  a  fire 
on  the  right-hand  side,  and  others  stood  round  an  iron  stove  in  tho 
middle  of  the  apartment.  The  whole  place  had  a  dilapidated  ap- 
pearance. From  a  back-window,  there  was  a  view  into  a  ruinous 
court-yard ;  beyond  which,  in  a  hollow,  accessible  by  a  side-lane, 
stood  a  shabby  brick -house,  on  which  the  word  Jail  was  inscribed 
in  large  black  letters  on  a  white  ground.  I  imagined  it  to  be  a  depot 
for  the  reception  of  negroes. 

"On  my  arrival,  and  while  making  these  preliminary  observa- 
tions, the  lots  for  sale  had  not  made  their  appearance.  In  about 
five  minutes  afterwards  they  were  ushered  in,  one  after  the  other, 
under  the  charge  of  a  mulatto,  who  seemed  to  act  as  principal  as- 
sistant. I  saw  no  whips,  chains,  or  any  other  engine  of  force.  Nor 
did  such  appear  to  be  required.  All  the  lots  took  their  seats  on  two 
long  forms  near  the  stove  ;  none  showed  any  signs  of  resistance ; 
nor  did  any  one  utter  a  word.  Their  manner  was  that  of  perfect 
humility  and  resignation. 

"  As  soon  as  all  were  seated,  there  was  a  general  examination  of 
their  respective  merits,  by  feeling  their  arms,  looking  into  their 
mouths,  and  investigating  the  quality  of  their  hands  and  fingers — 
this  last  being  evidently  an  important  particular.  Yet  there  was  no 
abrupt  rudeness  in  making  these  examinations — no  coarse  or  domi- 
neering language  was  employed.     The  three  negro  men  were  dressed 


36  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

I 

in  the  usual  manner — in  gray  woolen  clothing.  The  woman,  with 
three  children,  excited  my  peculiar  attention.  She  was  neatly  at- 
tired, with  a  colored  handkerchief  bound  around  her  head,  and  wore 
a  white  apron  over  her  gown.  Her  children  were  all  girls,  one  of 
them  a  baby  at  the  breast  three  months  old,  and  the  others  two  and 
three  years  of  age  respectively,  rigged  out  with  clean  white  pina- 
fores. There  was  not  a  tear  or  an  emotion  visible  in  the  whole 
party.  Everything  seemed  to  be  considered  as  a  matter  of  course  ; 
and  the  change  of  owners  was  possibly  looked  forward  to  with  as 
much  indifference  as  ordinary  hired  servants  anticipate  a  removal 
from  one  employer  to  another. 

"  While  intending-purchasers  were  proceeding  with  personal  ex- 
aminations of  the  several  lots,  I  took  the  liberty  of  putting  a  few 
questions  to  the  mother  of  the  children.  The  following  was  our 
conversation  : — 

"  '  Are  you  a  married  woman  ?' 

4i  '  Yes,  sir.' 

"  '  How  many  children  have  you  had  V 

"  '  Seven.' 

"  '  Where  is  your  husband?' 

"  '  In  Madison  county.' 

"  '  When  did  you  part  from  him  V 

"  '  On  Wednesday — two  days  ago.' 

"  '  Were  you  sorry  to  part  from  him  ?' 

"  '  Yes,  sir,'  she  replied,  with  a  deep  sigh  ;  '  my  heart  was  a'most 
broke.' 

"  '  Why  is  your  master  selling  you  ?' 

"  '  I  don't  know — he  wants  money  to  buy  some  land — suppose  he 
sells  me  for  that.' 

"  There  might  not  be  a  word  of  truth  in  these  answers,  for  I  had 
no  means  of  testing  their  correctness ;  but  the  woman  seemed  to 
speak  unreservedly,  and  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  she  said  nothing 
but  what,  if  necessary,  could  be  substantiated.  I  spoke,  also,  to 
the  young  woman  who  was  seated  near  her.  She,  like  the  others, 
was  perfectly  black,  and  appeai-ed  stout  and  healthy,  of  which  some 
of  the  persons  present  assured  themselves  by  feeling  her  arms  and 
ankles,  looking  into  her  mouth,  and  causing  her  to  stand  up.  She 
told  me  she  had  several  brothers  and  sisters,  but  did  not  know  where 
they  were.     She  said  she  was  a  house-servant,  and  would  be  glad  to 


VIRGINIA.  37 

be  bought  by  a  good  master — looking  at  me,  as  if  I  should  not  b« 
unacceptable.  ^ 

"  I  have  said  that  there  was  an  entire  absence  of  emotion  in  the  \ 
party  of  men,  women,  and  children,  thus  seated  preparatory  to  being  / 
sold.  This  does  not  correspond  with  the  ordinary  accounts  „©£ 
slave-sales,  which  are  represented  as  tearful  and  harrowing:''  My 
belief  is,  that  none  of  the  parties  felt  deeply  on  the  subject,  or  at 
least  that  any  distress  they  experienced  was  but  momentary — soon 
passed  away,  and  was  forgotten.  One  of  my  reasons  for  this  opin- 
ion rests  on  a  trifling  incident  which  occurred.  While  waiting  for 
the  commencement  of  the  sale,  one  of  the  gentlemen  present  amused 
himself  with  a  pointer-dog,  which,  at  command,  stood  on  its  hind- 
legs,  and  took  pieces  of  bread  from  his  pocket.  These  tricks  great- 
ly entertained  the  row  of  negroes,  old  and  young;  and  the  poor  wo- 
man, whose  heart  three  minutes  before  was  almost  broken,  now 
laughed  as  heartily  as  any  one. 

"  '  Sale  is  going  to  commence — this  way,  gentlemen,'  cried  a  man 
at  the  door  to  a  number  of  loungers  outside  ;  and  all  having  assem- 
bled, the  mulatto  assistant  led  the  woman  and  her  children  to  the 
block,  which  he  helped  her  to  mount.  There  she  stood  with  her  in- 
fant at  the  breast,  and  one  of  her  girls  at  each  side.  The  auction- 
eer, a  handsome,  gentlemanly  personage,  took  his  place,  with  one 
foot  on  an  old  deal  chair  with  a  broken  back,  and  the  other  raised 
on  the  somewhat  more  elevated  block.     It  was  a  striking  scene. 

"  '  Well,  gentlemen,'  began  the  salesman,  'here  is  a  capital  wo- 
man and  her  three  children,  all  in  good  health — what  do  you  say  for 
them?  Give  me  an  offer.  (Nobody  speaks.)  I  put.up  the  whole 
lot  at  850  dollars— 850  dollars — 850  dollars  (speaking  very  fast) — 
850  dollars.  Will  no  one  advance  upon  that  ?  A  very  extraordi- 
nary bargain,  gentlemen.  A  fine,  healthy  baby.  Hold  it  up.  (Mu- 
latto goes  up  the  first  step  of  the  block ;  takes  the  baby  from  the 
woman's  breast,  and  holds  it  aloft  with  one  hand,  so  as  to  show  that 
it  was  a  veritable  sucking  baby.)  That  will  do.  A  woman,  still 
young,  and  three  children,  all  for  850  dollars.  An  advance,  if  you 
please,  gentlemen.  (A  voice  bids  860.)  Thank  you,  sir,  860;  any 
one  bids  more?  (A  second  voice  says,  870;  and  so  on  the  bidding 
goes  as  far  as  890  dollars,  when  it  stops.)  That  won't  do,  gentle- 
men. I  cannot  take  such  a  low  price.  (After  a  pause,  addressing 
the  mulatto)  :  She  may  go  down.'     Down  from  the  block  the  woman 


38  OUR    SLAVE     STATES.' 

and  her  children  were  therefore  conducted  by  the  assistant,  and,  as 
if  nothing  had  occurred,  they  calmly  resumed  their  seats  by  the 
stove. 

"  The  next  lot  brought  forward  was  one  of  the  men.  The  mulat- 
to, beckoning  to  him  with  his  hand,  requested  him  to  come  behind  a 
canvas  screen,  of  two  leaves,  which  was  standing  near  the  back 
window.  The  man  placidly  rose,  and  having  been  placed  behind  the 
screen,  was  ordered  to  take  off  his  clothes,  which  he  did  without  a 
word  or  look  of  remonstrance.  About  a  dozen  gentlemen  crowded 
to  the  spot  while  the  poor  fellow  was  stripping  himself,  and  as  soon 
as  he  stood  on  the  floor,  bare  from  top  to  toe,  a  most  rigorous  scru- 
tiny of  his  person  was  instituted.  The  clear  black  skin,  back  and 
front,  was  viewed  all  over  for  sores  from  disease  ;  and  there  was  no 
part  of  his  body  left  unexamined.  The  man  was  told  to  open  and 
shut  his  hands,  asked  if  he  could  pick  cotton,  and  every  tooth  in  his 
head  was  scrupulously  looked  at.  The  investigation  being  at  an 
end,  he  was  ordered  to  dress  himself ;  and  having  done  so,  was  re- 
quested to  walk  to  the  block. 

The  ceremony  of  offering  him  for  competition  was  gone  through 
as  before,  but  no  one  would  bid.  The  other  two  men,  after  under- 
going similar  examinations  behind  the  screen,  were  also  put  up,  but 
with  the  same  result.  Nobody  would  bid  for  them,  and  they  were 
all  sent  back  to  their  seats.  It  seemed  as  if  the  company  had  con- 
spired not  to  buy  anything  that  day.  Probably  some  imperfections 
had  been  detected  in  the  personal  qualities  of  the  negroes.  Be  this 
as  it  may,  the  auctioneer,  perhaps  a  little  out  of  temper  from  his 
want  of  success,  walked  off  to  his  desk,  and  the  affair  was  so  far  at 
an  end. 

"  'This  way,  gentlemen — this  way  !'  was  heard  from  a  voice  out- 
side, and  the  company  immediately  hived  off  to  the  second  estab- 
lishment. At  this  office  there  was  a  young  woman,  and  also  a  man, 
for  sale.  The  woman  was  put  up  first  at  500  dollars  ;  and  possess- 
ing some  recommendable  qualities,  the  bidding  for  her  was  run  as 
high  as  710  dollars,  at  which  she  was  knocked  down  to  a  purchaser. 
The  man,  after  the  customary  examination  behind  the  screen,  was 
put  up  at  700  dollars  ;  but  a  small  imperfection  having  been  ob- 
served in  his  person,  no  one  would  bid  for  him  ;  and  he  was  ordered 
down. 

*' '  This  way,  gentlemen,  this  way — down  the  street,  if  you  please  !' 


VIRGINIA.  39 

was  now  shouted  by  a  person  in  the  employment  of  the  first  firm,  to 
whose  office  all  very  willingly  adjourned — one  migratory  company, 
it  will  be  perceived,  serving  all  the  slave-auctions  in  the  place. 
Mingling  in  the  crowd,  I  went  to  see  what  should  be  the  fate  of  the 
man  and  boy,  with  whom  I  had  already  had  some  communication. 

"  There  the  pair,  the  two  cousins,  sat  by  the  fire,  just  where  I 
had  left  them  an  hour  ago.     The  boy  was  put  up  first. 

"'Come  along,  my  man — jump  up;  there's  a  good  boy!'  said 
one  of  the  partners,  a  bulky  and  respectable-looking  person,  with  a 
gold  chain  and  bunch  of  seals  ;  at  the  same  time  getting  on  the 
block.  With  alacrity  the  little  fellow  came  forward,  and,  mounting 
the  steps,  stood  by  his  side.  The  forms  in  front  were  filled  by  the 
company  ;  and  as  I  seated  myself,  I  found  that  my  old  companion, 
Wide-awake,  was  close  at  hand,  still  chewing  and  spitting  at  a  great 
rate. 

"  '  Now,  gentlemen,'  said  the  auctioneer,  putting  his  hand  on  the 
shoulder  of  the  boy,  '  here  is  a  very  fine  boy,  seven  years  of  age, 
warranted  sound — what  do  you  say  for  him  ?  I  put  him  up  at  500 
dollars — 500  dollars  (speaking  quick,  his  right  hand  raised  up,  and 
coming  down  on  the  open  palm  of  his  left) — 500  dollars.  Any  one 
say  more  than  500  dollars  ?  (560  is  bid.)  560  dollars.  Nonsense  ! 
Just  look  at  him.  See  how  high  he  is.  (He  draws  the  lot  in  front 
of  him,  and  shows  that  the  little  fellow's  head  comes  up  to  his 
breast.)  You  see  he  is  a  fine,  tall,  healthy  boy.  Look  at  his 
hands.' 

"  Several  step  forward,  and  cause  the  boy  to  open  and  shut 
his  hands — the  flexibility  of  the  small  fingers,  black  on  the  one  side, 
and  whitish  on  the  other,  being  well  looked  to.  The  hands,  and  also 
the  mouth,  having  given  satisfaction,  an  advance  is  made  to  570, 
then  to  580  dollars. 

"  '  Gentlemen,  that  is  a  very  poor  price  for  a  boy  of  this  size. 
(Addressing  the  lot) — Go  down,  my  boy,  and  show  them  how  you 
can  run.' 

"  The  boy,  seemingly  happy  to  do  as  he  was  bid,  went  down  from 
the  block,  and  ran  smartly  across  the  floor  several  times  ;  the  eyes 
of  every  one  in  the  room  following  him. 

"  '  Now  that  will  do.  Get  up  again.  (Boy  mounts  the  block, 
the  steps  being  rather  deep  for  his  short  legs ;  but  the  auctioneer 
kindly  lends  him  a  hand.)     Come,  gentleman,  you  see  this  is  a  first- 


40  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

rate  lot.  (590—600—610—620—630  dollars  are  bid.)  I  will  sell 
him  for  630  dollars.  (Right  hand  coming  down  on  left.)  Last  call. 
630  dollars,  once — 630  dollars,  twice.  (A  pause  ;  hand  sinks.) 
gone  !' 

"  The  boy  having  descended,  the  man  was  desired  to  come  for- 
ward ;  and  after  the  usual  scrutiny  behind  a  screen,  he  took  his 
place  on  the  block. 

"'Well,  now,  gentlemen,'  said  the  auctioneer,  'here  is  a  right 
prime  lot.  Look  at  this  man  ;  strong,  healthy,  able-bodied ;  could 
not  be  a  better  hand  for  field-work.  He  can  drive  a  wagon,  or  any- 
thing. What  do  you  say  for  him  ?  I  offer  the  man  at  the  low  price 
of  800  dollars — he  is  well  worth  1200  dollars.  Come,  make  an  ad- 
vance, if  you  please.  800  dollars  said  for  the  man  (a  bid),  thank 
you;  810  dollars— 810  dollars— 810  dollars  (several  bids)— 820— 
830 — 850 — 860 — going  at  860 — going.  Gentlemen,  this  is  far  below 
his  value.  A  strong-boned  man,  fit  for  any  kind  of  heavy  work. 
Just  take  a  look  at  him.  (Addressing  the  lot) :  Walk  down.  Lot 
dismounts,  and  walks  from  one  side  of  the  shop  to  the  other.  When 
about  to  reascend  the  block,  a  gentleman,  who  is  smoking  a  cigar, 
examines  his  mouth  with  his  fingers.  Lot  resumes  his  place.)  Pray, 
gentlemen,  be  quick  (continues  the  auctioneer)  ;  I  must  sell  him, 
and  860  dollars  are  only  bid  for  the  man — 860  dollars.  (A  fresh  run 
of  bids  to  945  dollars.)  945  dollars,  once,  945  dollars,  twice  (look- 
ing slowly  round,  to  see  if  all  were  done),  945  dollars,  going — going 
— (hand  drops) — gone  !' 

"  Such  were  a  forenoon's  experiences  in  the  slave-market  of  Rich- 
mond. Everything  is  described  precisely  as  it  occurred,  Avithout 
passion  or  prejudice.  It  would  not  have  been  difficult  to  be  senti- 
mental on  a  subject  which  appeals  so  strongly  to  the  feelings ;  but  I 
have  preferred  telling  the  simple  truth.  In  a  subsequent  chapter,  I 
shall  endeavor  to  offer  some  general  views  of  slavery  in  its  social 
and  political  relations. 

"  W.  C." 

J 

A    JAMES    RIVER   FARM. 

This  morning  I  visited  a  farm,  some  account  of  which  will 
give  a  good  idea  of  the  more  advanced  mode  of  agriculture  in 
Eastern  Virginia.     It  is  situated  on  the  bank  of  James  River, 


VIRGINIA.  41 

and  has  ready  access,  by  water  or  land-carriage,  to  the  town  of 
Eichmond.  ■ 

The  soil  of  the  greater  part  is  a  red,  plastic,  clayey  loam,  of  a 
medium  or  low  fertility,  with  a  large  intermixture  of  small  quartz 
pebbles.  On  the  river  bank  is  a  tract  of  low  alluvial  land,  vary- 
ing from  an  eighth  to  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  breadth.  The  soil 
of  this  is  a  sandy  loam,  of  the  very  finest  quality  in  every  respect, 
and  it  has  been  discovered,  in  some  places,  to  be  over  ten  feet  in 
thickness ;  at  which  depth  the  sound  trunk  of  a  white  oak  has 
been  found,  showing  it  to  be  a  recent  deposit.  I  was  assured 
that  good  crops  of  corn,  wheat,  and  clover,  had  been  taken  from 
it,  without  its  giving  any  indications  of  "wearing  out,"  although 
no  manure,  except  an  occasional  dressing  of  lime,  had  ever  been 
returned  to  it.  Maize,  wheat,  and  clover  for  two  years,  usually 
occupy  the  ground,  in  succession,  both  on  upland  and  lowland, 
herd's-grass  (red-top  of  New  York),  sometimes  taking  the  place 
of  the  clover,  or  being  grown  with  it  for  hay,  in  which  case  the 
ground  remains  in  sward  for  several  years.  Oats  are  sometimes 
also  introduced,  but  the  yield  is  said  to  be  very  small. 

Hay  always  brings  a  high  price  in  Eichmond,  and  is  usually 
shipped  to  that  market  from  the  eastward.  This  year,  however, 
it  is  but  a  trifle  above  New  York  prices,  and  the  main  supply  is 
drawn  from  this  vicinity.  I  notice  that^oats,  in  the  straw,  are 
brought,  in  considerable  quantity,  to  Eichmond,  for  horse-feed, 
from  the  surrounding  country.  It  is  often  pressed  in  bales,  like 
hay,  and  sells  for  about  the  same  price.  At  present,  hay,  brought 
from  New  York  in  bales,  is  selling  at  $1  25  to  $1  50  per  cwt. ; 
oats,  in  straw,  the  same;  oats,  by  the  bushel,  40  to  50  cents; 
maize,  66  to  70  cents;  wheat  straw,  75  cents  per  cwt.;  maize 
leaves  ("  corn  fodder  "),  75  cents  per  cwt. 


42  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

Wheat,  notwithstanding  these  high  prices  of  forage  crops,  is 
considered  the  most  important  crop  of  the  farm.  The  practice  is 
to  cut  the  maize  (which  is  grown  on  much  the  same  plan  as  is 
usual  in  New  York)  at  the  root,  stook  it  in  rows  upon  the  field, 
plow  the  lands  between  the  rows  (one  way)  and  drill  in  wheat 
with  a  horse  drilling  machine :  then  remove  the  stooks  of  maize 
into  the  sown  ground,  and  prepare  the  intervening  lands  in  like 
manner.  The  maize  is  afterwards  husked  in  the  field,  at  leisure, 
and  carted  off,  with  the  stalks,  when  the  ground  is  frozen. 
Sometimes  the  seed-wheat  is  sown  by  hand  on  the  fresh-plowed 
ground,  and  harrowed  in.  In  the  spring,  clover-seed  is  sown  by 
hand.  The  wheat  is  reaped  by  either  Hussey's  or  M'Cormick's 
machine,  both  being  used  on  the  farm,  but  Hussey's  rather 
preferred,  as  less  liable  to  get  out  of  order,  and,  if  slightly 
damaged,  more  readily  repaired  by  the  slave  blacksmith  on 
the   farm. 

Lime  is  frequently  applied,  commonly  at  the  time  of  wheat- 
sowing,  at  the  rate  of  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  bushels  an  acre. 
It  is  brought,  by  sea,  from  Haverstraw,  New  York,  at  a  cost, 
delivered  on  the  farm,  of  1\  to  7-J  cents  a  bushel.  Plaster  (sul- 
phate of  lime)  has  been  tried,  with  little  or  no  perceptible  effect 
on  the  crops. 

Dung,  largely  accumulated  from  the  farm  stock,  is  applied 
almost  exclusively  to  the  maize  crops.  Guano  is  also  largely 
used  as  an  application  for  wheat.  After  trying  greater  and  less 
quantities,  the  proprietor  has  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that 
200  lbs.  to  the  acre  is  most  profitable.  It  will,  hereafter,  be 
applied,  at  that  rate,  to  all  the  wheat  grown  upon  the  farm.  It. 
has  also  been  used  with  advantage  for  ruta  baga.  For  corn,  it 
was  not  thought  of  much  value ;  the  greatest  advantage  had  been 


VIRGINIA.  43 

obtained  by  applying  it  to  the  poorest  land  of  the  farm,  some  of 
which  was  of  so  small  fertility,  and  at  such  a  distance  from  the  cattle 
quarters  and  the  river,  that  it  could  not  be  profitably  cultivated,  and 
had  been  at  waste  for  many  years.  I  understand  this  may  be  the  case 
with  half  the  land  included  in  the  large  farms  or  plantations  of 
this  part  of  the  country.  Two  hundred  weight  of  Peruvian  guano 
to  the  acre  brought  fifteen  bushels  of  wheat ;  and  a  good  crop  of 
clover  was  perfectly  sure  to  follow,  by  which  the  permanent 
improvement  of  the  soil  could  be  secured.  This  the  proprietor 
esteemed  to  be  the  greatest  benefit  he  derived  from  guano, 
and  he  is  pursuing  a  regular  plan  for  bringing  all  his  more 
sterile  upland  into  the  system  of  Convertible  husbandry  by  its 
aid. 

This  plan  is,  to  prepare  the  ground,  by  fallowing,  for  wheat ; 
spread  200  pounds  of  guano,  broadcast,  on  the  harrowed  surface, 
and  turn  it  under,  as  soon  as  possible  after  the  sowers,  with  a 
"two-shovel  plow"  (a  sort  of  large  two-shared  cultivator,  which 
could  only  be  used,  I  should  think,  on  very  light,  clean  soils), 
the  wheat  either  being  sown  and  covered  with  the  guano,  or, 
immediately  afterwards,  drilled  in  with  a  horse-machine.  In  the 
spring,  clover  is  sown.  After  the  wheat  is  harvested,  the  clover 
is  allowed  to  grow,  without  being  pastured  or  mown,  for  twelve 
months.  The  ground  is  then  limed,  clover  plowed  in,  and,  in 
October,  again  guanoed,  two  hundred  weight  to  the  acre,  and  wheat 
sown,  with  clover  to  follow.  The  clover  may  be  pastured  the  fol- 
lowing year,  but  in  the  ye,ar  succeeding  that,  it  is  allowed  to  grow 
unchecked  until  August,  when  it  is  plowed  in,  the  ground  again 
guanoed,  and  wheat  sown  with  herd's-grass  (red-top)  and  clover, 
which  is  to  remain,  for  mowing  and  pasture,  as  long  as  the 
ground  will  profitably  sustain  it. 


44  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

SLAVE    LABOR. 

The  labor  of  this  farm  was  entirely  performed  by  slaves.  I 
did  not  inquire  their  number,  but  I  judged  there  were  from 
twenty  to  forty.  Their  "quarters"  lined  -the  approach-road  to 
the  mansion,  and  were  well-made  and  comfortable  log  cabins, 
about  thirty  feet  long  by  twenty  wide,  and  eight  feet 'wall,  with 
a  high  loft  and  shingle  roof.  Each,  divided  in  the  middle,  and 
having  a  brick  chimney  outside  the  wall  at  each  end,  was  intended 
to  be  occupied  by  two  families.  There  were  square  windows, 
closed  by  wooden  ports,  having  a  single  pane  of  glass  in  the 
center.  The  house-servants  were  neatly  dressed,  but  the  field- 
hands  wore  very  coarse  and  ragged  garments. 

During  three  hours,  or  more,  in  which  I  was  in  company  with 
the  proprietor,  I  do  not  think  there  were  ten  consecutive  minutes 
uninterrupted  by  some  of  the  slaves  requiring  his  personal  direc- 
tion or  assistance.  He  was  even  obliged,  three  times,  to  leave 
the  dinner-table. 

"You  see,"  said  he,  smiling,  as  he  came  in  the  last  time,  "a 
farmer's  life,  in  this  country,  is  no  sinecure."  This  turning  the 
conversation  to  Slavery,  he  observed,  in  answer  to  a  remark  of 
mine,  "I  only  wish  your  philanthropists  would  contrive  some 
satisfactory  plan  to  relieve  us  of  it ;  the  trouble  and  the 
responsibility  of  properly  taking  care  of  our  negroes,  you  may 
judge,  from  what  you  see  yourself  here,  is  anything  but  enviable. 
But  what  can  we  do  that  is  better?  Our  free  negroes — and, 
I  believe  it  is  the  same  at  the  North  as  it  is  here — are  a 
miserable  set  of  vagabonds,  drunken,  vicious,  worse  off,  it  is 
my  honest  opinion,  than  those  who  are  retained  in  slavery.  I 
am  satisfied,  too,  that  our  slaves  are  better  off,  as  they  are,  than 
the  majority   of  your  free  laboring  classes  at  the  North." 


VIRGINIA.  45 

I  expressed  my  doubts. 

"  Well,  they  certainly  are  better  off  than  the  English  agricul- 
tural laborers  or,  I  believe,  those  of  any  other  Christian  country. 
Fxee_iabor  might  be. .more  proff table  to  us:  I  am  inclined  to 
think  it  would  be.  The  slaves  are  excessively  careless  and 
wasteful,  and,  in  various  ways — which,  without  you  lived  among 
them,  you  could  hardly  be  made  to  understand — subject  us  to 
very  annoying  losses. 

"  To  make  anything  by  farming,  here,  a  man  has  got  to  live  a 
hard  life.  You  see  how  constantly  I  am  called  upon — and. 
often,  it  is  about  as  bad  at  night  as  by  day.  Last  night  I  did 
not  sleep  a  wink  till  near  morning ;  I  am  quite  worn  out  with  it, 
and  my  wife's  health  is  failing.     But  I  cannot  rid  myself  of  it." 

OVERSEERS. 

I  asked  why  he  did  not  employ  an  overseer. 

"  Because  I  do  not  think  it  right  to  trust  to  such  men  as  we 
have  to  use,  if  we  use  any,  for  overseers." 

"Is  the  general  character  of  overseers  bad?" 

"  They  are  the  curse  of  this  country,  sir ;  the  worst  men  in 
the  community.  *  *  *  *  But  lately,  I  had  another  sort 
of  fellow  offer — a  fellow  like  a  dancing-master,  with  kid  gloves, 
and  wrist-bands  turned  up  over  his  coat-sleeves,  and  all  so  nice, 
that  I  was  almost  ashamed  to  talk  to  him  in  my  old  coat  and 
slouched  hat.  Half  a  bushel  of  recommendations  he  had  with 
him,  too.  Well,  he  was  not  the  man  for  me — not  half  the 
gentleman,  with  all  his  airs,  that  Ned  here  is  " — (a  black  servant, 
who  was  bursting  with  suppressed  laughter,  behind  his  chair). 

"  Oh,  they  are  interesting  creatures,  sir,"  he  continued,  "  and, 
with  all  their  faults,  have  many  beautiful  traits.     I  can't  help 


46  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

being  attached  to  them,  and  I  am  sure  they  love  us."  In  his 
own  case,  at  least,  I  did  not  doubt  it ;  his  manner  towards  them 
was  paternal — familiar  and  kind;  and  they  came  to  him  like 
children  who  have  been  given  some  task,  and  constantly  are 
wanting  to  be  encouraged  and  guided,  simply  and  confidently. 
At  dinner,  he  frequently  addressed  the  servant  familiarly,  and 
drew  him  into  our  conversation  as  if  he  were  a  family  friend, 
better  informed,  on  some  local  and  domestic  points,  than  himself. 
He  informed  me  that  able-bodied  field-hands  were  hired  out,  in 
this  vicinity,  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  dollars  a  year,  and 
their  board  and  clothing.  Four  able-bodied  men,  that  I  have 
employed  the  last  year,  on  my  farm  in  New  York,  I  pay,  on  an 
average,  one  hundred  and  five  dollars  each,  and  board  them; 
they  clothe  themselves  at  an  expense,  I  think,  of  twenty  dollars 
a  year; — probably,  slaves'  clothing  costs  twice  that.  They 
constitute  all  the  force  of  my  farm,  hired  by  the  year  (except 
a  boy,  who  goes  to  school  in  Winter),  and,  in  my  absence,  have 
no  overseer  except  one  of  themselves,  whom  I  appoint.  I  pay 
the  fair  wages  of  the  market,  more  than  any  of  my  neighbors, 
I  believe,  and  these  are  no  lower  than  the  average  of  what  I 
have  paid  for  the  last  five  years.  It  is  difficult  to  measure  the 
labor  performed  in  a  day  by  one,  with  that  of  the  other,  on 
account  of  undefined  differences  in  the  soil,  and  in  the  bulk  and 
weight  of  articles  operated  upon.  But,  here,  I  am  shown  tools 
that  no  man  in  his  senses,  with  us,  would  allow  a  laborer,  to 
whom  he  was  paying  wages,  to  be  encumbered  with ;  and  the 
excessive  weight  and  clumsiness  of  Avhich,  I  would  judge,  would 
make  work  at  least  ten  per  cent,  greater  than  those  ordinarily 
used  with  us.  And  I  am  assured  that,  in  the  careless  and  clumsy 
way  they  must  be  used  by  the  slaves,  anything  lighter  or  less 


■       VIRGINIA.  47 

rude  could  uot  be  furnished  them  with  good  economy,  and  that 
such  tools  as  we  constantly  give  our  laborers,  and  find  our  profit 
in  giving  them,  would  not  last  out  a  day  in  a  Virginia  corn-field 
— much  lighter  and  more  free  from  stones  though  it  be  than 
ours. 

So,  too,  when  I  ask  why  mules  are  so  universally  substituted 
for  horses  on  the  farm,  the  first  reason  given,  and  confessedly  the 
most  conclusive  one,  is,  that  horses  cannot  bear  the  treatment 
that  they  always  must  get  from  negroes ;  horses  are  always  soon 
foundered  or  crippled  by  them,  while  mules  will  bear  cudgeling, 
and  lose  a  meal  or  two  now  and  then,  and  not  be  materially 
injured,  and  they  do  not  take  cold  or  get  sick  if  neglected  or 
overworked.  But  I  do  not  need  to  go  further  than  to  the  window 
of  the  room  in  which  I  am  writing,  to  see,  at  almost  any  time, 
treatment  of  cattle  that  would  insure  the  immediate  discharge 
of  the  driver,  by  almost  any  farmer  owning  them  at  the  North. 


1/  

A   COAL    MINE NEGRO    AND    ENGLISH    MINERS. 

yT 

Yesterday  I  visited  a  coal-pit:  the  majority  of  the  mining 
laborers  are  slaves,  and  uncommonly  athletic  and  fine-looking 
negroes ;  but  a  considerable  number  of  white  hands  are  also 
employed,  and  they  occupy  all  the  responsible  posts.  The 
slaves  are,  some  of  them,  owned  by  the  Mining  Company ;  but 
the  most  are  hired  of  their  owners,  at  from  $120  to  $200  a 
year,  the  company  boarding  and  clothing  them.  (I  have  the 
impression  that  I  heard  it  was  customary  to  give  them  a  certain 
allowance  of  money  and  let  them  find  their  own  board). 

The  white  hands  are  mostly  English  or  Welchmen.  One  of 
them,  with  whom  I  conversed,  told  me  that  he  had  been  here 
several  years ;  he  had  previously  lived  some  years  at  the  North. 


48  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

He  got  better  wages  here  than  he  had  earned  at  the  North,  but 
he  was  not  contented,  and  did  not  intend  to  remain.  On 
pressing  him  for  the  reason  of  his  discontent,  he  said,  after  some 
hesitation,  that  he  had  rather  live  where  he  could  be  more  free ; 
a  man  had  to  be  too  "  discreet"  here :  if  one  happened  to  say 
anything  that  gave  offense,  they  thought  no  more  of  drawing  a 
pistol  or  a  knife  upon  him,  than  they  would  of  kicking  a  dog 
that  was  in  their  way.  Not  long  since,  a  young  English  fellow 
came  to  the  pit,  and  was  put  to  work  along  with  a  gang  of 
negroes.  One  morning,  about  a  week  afterwards,  twenty  or 
thirty  men  called  on  him,  and  told  him  that  they  would  allow 
him  fifteen  minutes  to  get  out  of  sight,  and  if  they  ever  saw  him 
in  those  parts  again,  they  would  "give  him  hell."  They  were 
all  armed,  and  there  was  nothing  for  the  young  fellow  to  do 
but  to  move  "  right  off." 

"  What  reason  did  they  give  him  for  it  ?" 

"  They  did  not  give  him  any  reason." 

"  But  what  had  he  done  ?" 
i  "  Why  I  believe  they  thought  he  had  been  too  free  with  the 
/niggers;  he  wasn't  used  to  them,  you  see,  sir,  and  he  talked  to 
yem  free  like,  and  they  thought  he'd  make  'em  think  too  much 
o|  themselves." 

He  said  the  slaves  were  very  well  fed,  and  well  treated — not 
worked  over  hard.  They  were  employed  night  and  day,  in 
relays. 

The  coal  from  these  beds  is  of  special  value  for  gas  manu- 
facture, and  is  shipped,  for  that  purpose,  to  all  the  large  towns  on 
the  Atlantic  sea-board,  even  to  beyond  Boston.  It  is  delivered 
to  shipping  at  Bichmond,  at  fifteen  cents  a  bushel :  about  thirty 
bushels  go  to  a  ton. 


VIRGINIA.  49 

VALUABLE   SERVANTS. 

The  hotel  at  which  I  am  staying,  "  the  American,"  Milberger 
Smith,  from  New  York,  proprietor,  is  a  very  capital  one.  I 
have  never,  this  side  the  Atlantic,  had  my  comforts  provided  for 
better,  in  my  private  room,  with  so  little  annoyance  from  the 
servants.  The  chamber-servants  are  negroes,  and  are  accom- 
plished in  their  business ;  (the  dining-room  servants  are  Irish). 
A  man  and  a  woman  attend  together  upon  a  few  assigned  rooms, 
in  the  hall  adjoining  which  they  are  constantly  in  waiting ;  your 
bell  is  answered  immediately,  your  orders  are  quickly  and  quietly 
followed,  and  your  particular  personal  wants  anticipated  as  much 
as  possible,  and  provided  for,  as  well  as  the  usual  offices 
performed,  when  you  are  out.  The  man  becomes  your  servant 
while  you  are  in  your  room ;  he  asks,  at  night,  when  he  comes  to 
request  your  boots,  at  what  time  he  shall  come  in  the  morning, 
and  then,  without  being  very  exactly  punctual,  he  comes  quietly 
in,  makes  your  fire,  sets  the  boots  before  it,  brushes  and  arranges 
your  clothes,  lays  out  your  linen,  arranges  your  washing  and 
dressing  gear,  asks  if  you  want  anything  else  of  him  before 
breakfast,  opens  the  shutters,  and  goes  off  to  the  next  room.  I 
took  occasion  to  speak  well  of  him  to  my  neighbor  one  day,  that 
I  might  judge  whether  I  was  particularly  favored. 

"  Oh  yes,"  he  said,  "  Henry  was  a  very  good  boy,  very — 
valuable  servant  —  quite  so  —  would  be  worth  two  thousand 
dollars,  if  he  was  a  little  younger — easy." 

At  dinner,  a  respectable  looking,  gray-headed  man  asked  another: 

"  Niggers  are  going  high  now,  aint  they  V 

"Yes,  sir." 

"  What  would  you  consider  a  fair  price  for  a  w  oman  thirty 

years  old,  with  a  young-one  two  years  old?" 
3 


50  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

"Depends  altogether  on  her  physical  condition,  you  know. 
— Has  she  any  other  children?" 
"  Yes;  four." 

" Well — I  reckon  ahout  seven  to  eight  hundred." 

"  I  bought  one  yesterday — gave  six  hundred  and  fifty." 
"  Well,  sir,  if  she's  tolerable  likely,  you  did  well." 

DRESS,    AND    STYLE    OF    PEOPLE. 

What  is  most  remarkable  in  the  appearance  of  the  people 
of  the  better  class,  is  their  invariably  high-dressed  condition ; 
look  down  the  opposite  side  of  the  table,  even  at  breakfast, 
and  you  will  probably  see  thirty  men  drinking  coffee,  all 
in  full  funeral  dress,  not  an  easy  coat  amongst  them.  It  is  the 
same  in  the  street,  and  the  same  with  ladies  as  with  gentlemen ; 
silk  and  satin,  under  umbrellas,  rustle  along  the  side-walk,  or 
skip  across  it  between  carriages  and  the  shops,  as  if  they  were 
going  to  a  dinner-party,  at  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The 
last  is  only  New  York  repeated,  to  be  sure,  but  the  gentlemen 
carry  it  further  than  in  New  York,  and  seem  never  to  indulge 
in  undress. 

I  have  rarely  seen  a  finer  assemblage  of  people  than  filled  the 
theatre  one  night,  at  the  benefit  of  the  Bateman  children,  who 
are  especial  favorites  of  the  public  here.  As  the  Legislature  is 
in  session,  I  presume  there  was  a  fair  representation  of  the  Vir- 
ginians of  all  parts  of  the  State.  A  remarkable  proportion  of 
the  men  were  very  tall  and  of  animated  expression — and  of  the 
women,  fair,  refined,  and  serene.  The  men,  however,  were  very 
deficient  in  robustness,  and  the  women,  though  graceful  and 
attractive,  had  none  of  that  dignity  and  stateliness  for  which  the 
dames  of  Virginia  were  formerly  much  distinguished. 


VIRGINIA.  51 

In  manners,  I  notice  that,  between  man  and  man,  more 
ceremony  and  form  is  sustained,  in  familiar  conversation,  than 
well-bred  people  commonly  use  at  the  North. 

Among  the  people  you  see  in  the  streets,  full  half,  I  should 
think,  are  more  or  less  of  negro  blood,  and  a  very  decent, 
civil  people  these  seem,  in  general,  to  be ;  more  so  than  the 
laboring  class  of  whites,  among  which  there  are  many  very 
ruffianly  looking  fellows.  There  is  a  considerable  population 
of  foreign  origin,  generally  of  the  least  valuable  class ;  very  dirty 
German  Jews,  especially,  abound,  and  their  characteristic  shops 
(with  their  characteristic  smells,  quite  as  bad  as  in  Cologne),  are 
thickly  set  in  the  narrowest  and  meanest  streets,  which  seem  to 
be  otherwise  inhabited  mainly  by  negroes. 

STREET    PEOPLE. 

Immense  wagons,  drawn  by  six  mules  each,  the  teamster 
always  riding  on  the  back  of  the  near-wheeler,  are  a  characteristic 
feature  of  the  streets.  Another  is  the  wood-carts ;  small  trucks 
loaded  with  about  a  cord  of  pine  wood,  drawn  by  three  mules  or 
horses,  one  in  shafts,  and  two  others,  abreast,  before  him ;  a  negro 
always  riding  the  shaft-horse  and  guiding  the  leaders  with  a 
single  rein,  one  pull  to  turn  them  to  the  right,  and  two  to  the 
left,  with  a  great  deal  of  the  whip  whichever  way  they  go.  The 
same  guiding  apparatus,  a  single  line,  with  branches  to  each  bit, 
is  used  altogether  upon  the  long  wagon  teams.  On  the  canal,  a 
long,  narrow,  canoe-like  boat,  perhaps  fifty  feet  long  and  six 
wide,  and  drawing  but  a  foot  or  two  of  water,  is  nearly  as 
common  as  the  ordinary  large  boats,  such  as  are  used  on  our 
canals.  They  come  out  of  some  of  the  small,  narrow,  crooked 
streams,  connected  with  the  canals,  in  which  a  difficult  navigation 


52  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

is  effected  by  poleing.  They  are  loaded  -with  tobacco,  flour,  and 
a  great  variety  of  raw  country  produce.  The  canal  boatmen  of 
Virginia  seem  to  be  quite  as  rude,  insolent,  and  riotous  a  class 
as  tbose  of  New  York,  and  every  facility  is  evidently  afforded 
them,  at  Eichmond,  for  indulging  their  peculiar  appetites  and 
tastes.  A  great  many  low  eating,  and,  I  should  think,  drinking 
shops  are  frequented  chiefly  by  the  negroes.  Dancing  and 
other  amusements  are  carried  on  in  these  at  night. 

From  reading  the  comments  of  Southern  statesmen  and  news- 
papers on  the  crime  and  misery  which  sometimes  result  from  the 
accumulation  of  poor  and  ignorant  people,  with  no  intelligent 
masters  to  take  care  of  them,  in  our  Northern  towns,  one  might 
get  the  impression  that  Southern  towns — especially  those  not 
demoralized  by  foreign  commerce — were  comparatively  free  from 
a  low  and  licentious  population.  From  what  I  have  seen,  how- 
ever, I  should  be  now  led  to  think  that  there  was  at  least  as 
much  vice,  and  of  what  we  call  rowdyism,  in  Eichmond,  as  in 
any  Northern  town  of  its  size.* 

THE  GREAT  SOUTHERN  ROUTE  AND  ITS  FAST  TRAIN. 

The  train  was  advertised  to  leave  at  3.30  P.  M.  At  that  hour 
the  cars  were  crowded  with  passengers,  and  the  engineer,  punc- 
tually at  the  minute,  gave  notice  that  he  was  at  his  post,  by  a 
long,  loud  whistle  of  the  locomotive.  Five  minutes  afterwards 
he   gave   us   an   impatient   jerk;    ten   minutes   afterwards   we 


*  Sad  Picture. — A  gentleman  informs  the  Richmond  (Va.)  Dispatch,  that, 
while  taking  a  6troll  on  one  of  the  islands  in  James  river,  not  far  from  Mayo's 
Bridge  last  Sunday  morning,  he  counted  as  many  as  twenty-two  boys,  from  ten 
to  fifteen  years  of  age,  engaged  in  gaming  with  cards  and  dice  for  money.  In 
some  of  the  parties  he  saw  grown  men  and  small  boys  playing  bluff,  and  cursing 
swearing,  and  drinking. — Southern  Newspaper. 


VIRGINIA.  53 

advanced  three  rods  ;  twelve  minutes  afterwards,  returned  to  first 
position :  continued,  "  backing  and  filling"  upon  the  bridge  over 
the  rapids  of  the  James  river,  for  half  an  hour.  At  precisely 
four  o'clock,  crossed  the  bridge  and  fairly  started  for  Petersburg. 

Ean  twenty  miles  in  exactly  an  hour  and  thirty  minutes,  (thir- 
teen miles  an  hour ;  mail  train,  especially  recommended  by 
advertisement  as  "fast").  Brakes  on,  three  times,  for  cattle 
on  the  track;  twenty  minutes  spent  at  way-stations.  Flat 
rail.  Locomotive  built  at  Philadelphia.  I  am  informed  that 
most  of  those  used  on  the  road — perhaps  all  those  of  the  slow 
trains — are  made  at  Petersburg. 

At  one  of  the  stoppages,  smoke  was  to  bo  seen  issuing  from 
the  truck  of  a  car.  The  conductor,  on  having  his  attention 
called  to  it,  nodded  his  head  sagely,  took  a  morsel  of  tobacco, 
put  his  hands  in  his  pocket,  looked  at  the  truck  as  if  he  would 
mesmerize  it,  spat  upon  it,  and  then  stept  upon  the  platform 
and  shouted  "All  right !  Go  ahead !"  At  the  next  stoppage, 
the  smoking  was  furious ;  conductor  bent  himself  over  it  with  an 
evidently  strong  exercise  of  his  will,  but  not  succeeding  to  tran- 
quilize  the  subject  at  all,  he  suddenly  relinquished  the  attempt, 
and,  deserting  Mesmer  for  Preisnitz,  shouted,  "  Ho !  boy !  bring 
me  some  water  here."  A  negro  soon  brought  a  quart  of  water 
in  a  tin  vessel. 

"Hain't  got  no  oil,  Columbus?" 

"No,  sir." 

"Hum — go  ask  Mr.  Smith  for  some:  this  yer's  a  screaking 
so,  I  durstn't  go  on.  You  Scott !  get  some  salt.  And  look 
here,  some  of  you  boys,  get  me  some  more  water.  D'ye  hear?" 
•  Salt,  oil,  and  water,  were  crowded  into  the  box,  and,  after  five 
minutes  longer  delay,  we  went  on,  the  truck  still  smoking,  and 


54  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

the  water  and  oil  boiling  in  the  box,  until  we  reached  Petersburg. 
The  heat  was  the  result,  I  suppose,  of  a  neglect  of  sufficient  or 
timely  oiling.  While  waiting,  in  a  carriage,  for  the  driver  to  get 
my  baggage,  I  saw  a  negro  oiling  all  the  trucks  of  the  train ;  as 
he  proceeded  from  one  to  the  other,  he  did  not  give  himself  the 
trouble  to  elevate  the  outlet  of  his  oiler,  so  that  a  stream  of  oil, 
costing  probably  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  gallon,  was  poured  out 
upon  the  ground  the  whole  length  of  the  train. 

ONE    OF    THE   LAW-GIVERS. 

While  on  the  bridge  at  Eichmond,  the  car  in  which  I  was 
seated  was  over-full — several  persons  standing;  among  them, 
one  considerably  "  excited,"  who  informed  the  company  that  he 
was  a  Member  of  the  House  of  Delegates,  and  that  he  would 
take  advantage  of  this  opportune  collection  of  the  people,  to 
expose  an  atrocious  attempt,  on  the  part  of  the  minority,  to  jump 
a  Bill  through  the  Legislature,  which  was  not  in  accordance 
with  true  Democratic  principles.  He  continued  for  some  time  to 
address  them  in  most  violent,  absurd,  profane,  and  meaningless 
language  ;  the  main  point  of  his  oration  being,  to  demand  the  popu- 
lar gratitude  for  himself,  for  having  had  the  sagacity  and  courage 
to  prevent  the  accomplishment  of  the  nefarious  design.  He 
afterwards  attempted  to  pass  into  the  ladies'  car,  but  was  dis- 
suaded from  doing  so  by  the  conductor,  who  prevailed  on  a 
young  man  to  give  him  his  seat.  Having  taken  it,  he  immedi- 
ately lifted  his  feet  upon  the  back  of  the  seat  before  him, 
resting  them  upon  the  shoulders  of  its  occupant.  This  gentle- 
man turning  his  head,  he  begged  his  pardon ;  but,  hoping  it 
would  not  occasion  him  inconvenience,  he  said  he  would  prefer 
to  keep  them  there,  and  did  so ;  soon  afterwards  falling  asleep. 


VIRGINIA.  55 

FREIGHT    TAKEN THE    SLAVE   TRADE. 

There  were,  in  the  train,  two  first-class  passenger  cars,  and 
two  freight  cars.  The  latter  were  occupied  by  about  forty 
negroes,  most  of  them  belonging  to  traders,  who  were  sending 
them  to  the  cotton  States  to  be  sold.  Such  kind  of  evidence  of 
activity  in  the  slave  trade  of  Virginia  is  to  be  seen  every  day ; 
but  particulars  and  statistics  of  it  are  not  to  be  obtained  by  a 
stranger  here.  Most  gentlemen  of  character  seem  to  have 
a  special  disinclination  to  converse  on  the  subject ;  and  it  is 
denied,  with  feeling,  that  slaves  are  often  reared,  as  is  supposed 
by  the  Abolitionists,  with  the  intention  of  selling  them  to  the 
traders.  It  appears  to  me  evident,  however,  from  the  manner  in 
which  I  hear  the  traffic  spoken  of  incidentally,  that  the  cash 
value  of  a  slave  for  sale,  above  the  cost  of  raising  it  from  infancy 
to  the  age  at  which  it  commands  the  highest  price,  is  generally 
considered  among  the  surest  elements  of  a  planter's  wealth. 
Such  a  nigger  is  worth  such  a  price,  and  such  another  is  too  old 
to  learn  to  pick  cotton,  and  such  another  will  bring  so  much, 
when  it  has  grown  a  little  more,  I  have  frequently  heard  people 
say,  in  the  street,  or  the  public-houses.  That  a  slave  woman  is 
commonly  esteemed  least  for  her  laboring  qualities,  most  for 
those  qualities  which  give  value  to  a  brood-mare  is,  also,  con- 
stantly made  apparent.* 


*  A  slaveholder  writing  to  me  with  regard  to  my  cautious  statements  on  this 
subject,  made  in  the  Daily  Times,  says  : — "  In  the  States  of  Maryland,  Virginia, 
North  Carolina,  Kentucky,  Tennessee  and  Missouri,  as  much  attention  is  paid 
to  the  breeding  and  growth  of  negroes  as  to  that  of  horses  and  mules.  Further 
South,  we  raise  them  both  for  use  and  for  market.  Planters  command  their 
girls  and  women  (married  or  unmarried)  to  have  children  ;  and  I  have  known  a 
great  many  negro  girls  to  be  sold  off,  because  they  did  not  have  children.  A 
breeding  woman  is  worth  from  one-sixth  to  one-fourth  more  than  one  that  doe3 
not  breed." 


56  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

By  comparing  the  average  decennial  ratio  of  slave  increase  in  all 
the  States  with  the  difference  in  the  number  of  the  actual  slave- 
population  of  the  slave-breeding  States,  as  ascertained  by  the 
census,  it  is  apparent  that  the  number  of  slaves  exported  to  the 
cotton  States  is  considerably  .more  than  twenty  thousand  a  year. 

While  calling  on  a  gentleman  occupying  an  honorable  official 
position  at  Eichmond,  I  noticed  upon  his  table  a  copy  of 
Professor  Johnson's  Agricultural  Tour  in  the  United  States. 
Eeferring  to  a  paragraph  in  it,  where  some  statistics  of  the  value 
of  the  slaves  raised  and  annually  exported  from  Virginia  were 
given,  I  asked  if  he  knew  how  these  had  been  obtained,  and 
whether  they  were  reliable.  "No,"  he  replied;  "I  don't  know 
anything  about  it;  but  if  they  are  anything  unfavorable  to  the 
institution  of  slavery,  you  may  be  sure  they  are  false."  This  is 
but  an  illustration,  in  extreme,  of  the  manner  in  which  I  find 
a  desire  to  obtain  more  correct  but  definite  information,  on  the 
subject  of  slavery,  is  usually  met,  by  gentlemen  otherwise  of 
enlarged  mind  and  generous  qualities. 

A  gentleman,  who  was  a  member  of  the  "  Union  Safety  Com- 
mittee" of  New  York,  during  the  excitement  which  attended  the 
discussion  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act  of  1850,  told  me  that,  as  he 
was  passing  through  Virginia  this  winter,  a  man  entered  the  car 
in  which  he  was  seated,  leading  in  a  negro  girl,  whose  manner 
and  expression  of  face  indicated  dread  and  grief.  Thinking  she 
was  a  criminal,  he  asked  the  man  what  she  had  done: 

"Done"?     Nothing." 

"What  are  you  going  to  do  with  her1?" 

"  I'm  taking  her  down  to  Eichmond,  to  be  sold." 

"Does  she  belong  to  you?" 

"No;  she  belongs  to  ;  he  raised  her." 


VIRGINIA?  57 

"Why  does  he  sell  her — has  she  done  anything  wrong?" 

"Done  anything?     No:  she's  no  fault,  I  reckon." 

"Then,  what  does  he  want  to  sell  for1?" 

"Sell  her  for!  Why  shouldn't  he  sell  her?  He  sells  one  or 
two  every  year;  wants  the  money  for  'em,  I  reckon." 

The  irritated  tone  and  severe  stare  with  which  this  was 
said,  my  friend  took  as  a  caution  not  to  pursue  his  investiga- 
tion. 

A  gentleman,  with  whom  I  was  conversing  on  the  subject  of 
the  cost  of  slave  labor,  in  answer  to  an  inquiry — what  proportion 
of  all  the  stock  of  slaves  of  an  old  plantation  might  be  reckoned 
upon  to  do  full  work? — answered,  that  he  owned  ninety-six 
negroes;  of  these,  only  thirty-five  were  field-hands,  the  rest 
being  either  too  young  or  too  old  for  hard  work.  He  reckoned 
his  whole  force  as  only  equal  to  twenty-one  strong  men,  or 
"prime  field-hands."  But  this  proportion  was  somewhat  smaller 
than  usual,  he  added,  "because  his  women  were  uncommonly 
good  breeders;  he  did  not  suppose  there  was  a  lot  of  women 
anywhere  that  bred  faster  than  his;  he  never  heard  of  babies 
coming  so  fast  as  they  did  on  his  plantation ;  it  was  perfectly 
surprising ;  and  every  one  of  them,  in  his  estimation,  was  worth 
two  hundred  dollars,  as  negroes  were  selling  now,  the  moment  it 
drew  breath." 

I  asked,  what  he  thought  might  be  the  usual  proportion  of 
workers  to  slaves,  supported  on  plantations,  throughout  the 
South.  On  the  large  cotton  and  sugar  plantations  of  the  more 
Southern  States,  it  was  very  high,  he  replied;  because  their 
hands  were  nearly  all  bought  and  picked  for  ivork;  he  supposed, 
on  these,  it  would  be  about  one-half;  but,  on  any  old  plantation, 
where  the  stock  of  slaves  had  been  an  inheritance,  and  none  had 


58  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

been  bought  or  sold,  be  thought  the  working  force  would  rarely 
be  more  than  one-third,  at  most,  of  the  whole  number. 

This  gentleman  was  out  of  health,  and  told  me,  with  frankness, 
that  such  was  the  trouble  and  annoyance  his  negroes  occasioned 
him — although  he  had  an  overseer — and  so  wearisome  did  he 
find  the  lonely  life  he  led  on  his  plantation,  that  he  could  not 
remain  upon  it;  and,  as  he  knew  everything  would  go  to  the 
dogs  if  he  did  not,  he  was  seriously  contemplating  to  sell  out, 
retaining  only  his  foster-mother  and  a  body-servant.  He  thought 
of  taking  them  to  Louisiana  and  Texas,  for  sale;  but,  if  he 
should  learn  that  there  was  much  probability  that  Lower  Califor- 
nia would  be  made  a  slave  State,  he  supposed  it  would  pay  him 
to  wait,  as  probably,  if  that  should  occur,  he  could  take  them 
there  and  sell  them  for  twice  as  much  as  they  would  now  bring 
in  New  Orleans.  He  knew  very  well,  he  said,  that,  as  they  were, 
raising  corn  and  tobacco,  they  were  paying  nothing  at  all  like  9. 
fair  interest  on  their  value.* 

Some  of  his  best  hands  he  now  rented  out,  to  work  in  a 
furnace,  and  for  the  best  of  these  he  had  been  offered,  for  next 
year,  two  hundred  dollars.  He  did  not  know  whether  he  ought 
to  let  them  go,  though.  They  were  worked  hard,  and  had  too 
much  liberty,  and  were  acquiring  bad  habits.  They  earned  money, 
by  overwork,  and  spent  it  for  whisky,  and  got  a  habit  of  roaming 
about  and  talcing  care  of  themselves ;  because,  when  they  were  not 
at  work  in  the  furnace,  nobody  looked  out  for  them. 

I  begin  to  suspect  that  the  great  trouble  and  anxiety  of  South- 
ern gentlemen  is : — How,  without  quite  destroying  the  capabiUties 

*  Mr.  Wise  is  reported  to  have  stated,  in  his  electioneering  tour,  when  can- 
didate for  Governor,  in  1855,  that,  if  slavery  were  permitted  in  California, 
negroes  would  sell  for  $5,000  apiece. 


VIRGINIA.  59 

of  the  negro  for  any  work  at  all,  to  prevent  him  from  learning  to 
take  care  of  himself. 

RURAL     SCENERY     AND    RURAL   LIFE    IN    VIRGINIA. 

Petersburg,  Dec.  28. — It  was  early  in  a  fine,  mild,  bright 
morning,  like  the  pleasantest  we  ever  have  in  March,  that  I 
alighted,  from  a  train  of  cars,  at  a  country  station.  Besides  the 
shanty  that  stood  for  a  station-house,  there  was  a  small,  com- 
fortable farm-house  on  the  right,  and  a  country  store  on  the 
left,  and  around  them,  perhaps,  fifty  acres  of  cleared  land, 
now  much  flooded  with  muddy  water ; — all  environed  by  thick 
woods. 

A  few  negro  children,  staring  as  fixedly  and  posed  as  life- 
lessly as  if  they  were  really  figures  "  carved  in  ebony,"  stood,  lay, 
and  lounged  on  the  sunny  side  of  the  ranks  of  locomotive-firewood; 
a  white  man,  smoking  a  cigar,  looked  out  of  the  door  of  the 
store,  and  another,  chewing  tobacco,  leaned  against  a  gate-post 
in  front  of  the  farm-house ;  I  advanced  to  the  latter,  and  asked 
him  if  I  could  hire  a  horse  in  the  neighborhood. 

"How  d'ye  do,  sir?"  he  replied;  "I  have  some  horses — none 
on  'em  very  good  ones,  though — rather  hard  riders ;  reckon, 
perhaps,  they  wouldn't  suit  you  very  well." 

"  Thank  you ;  do  you  think  I  could  find  anything  better 
about  here?" 

"  Colonel  Gillin,  over  here  to  the  store,  's  got  a  right  nice 
saddle-horse,  if  he'll  let  you  take  her.     I'll  go  over  there  with 

you,    and  see   if  he    will Mornin',   Colonel ; — here's  a 

gentleman  that  wants  to  go  to  Thomas  W.'s:  couldn't  you  let 
him  have  your  saddle-horse?" 

"How  do  you  do,  sir;  I  suppose  you'd  come  back  to-nighf;'?" 


60  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

"  That's  my  intention,  but  I  might  be  detained  till  to-morrow, 
unless  it  would  be  inconvenient  to  you  to  spare  your  horse." 

"  Well,  yes,  sir,  I  reckon  you  can  have  her ; — Tom ! — Tom ! — 
Tom !     Now,    has  that    devilish    nigger    gone    again !      Tom ! 

Oh,  Tom!    saddle   the  filly  for   this  gentleman. Have  you 

ever  been  to  Mr.  W.'s,  sir?" 

"No,  I  have  not." 

"  It  isn't  a  very  easy  place  for  strangers  to  go  to  from  here ; 
but  I  reckon  I  can  direct  you,  so  you'll  have  no  difficulty. 

He  accordingly  began  to  direct  me ;  but,  the  way  appeared  so 
difficult  to  find,  I  asked  him  to  let  me  make  a  written  memoran- 
dum, and,  from  this  memorandum,  I  now  repeat  the  directions 
he  gave  me. 

"  You  take  this  road  here — you'll  see  where  it's  most  traveled, 
and  it's  easy  enough  to  keep  on  it  for  about  a  mile ;  then  there's 
a  fork,  and  you  take  the  right ;  pretty  soon,  you'll  cross  a  creek 
and  turn  to  the  right — the  creek's  been  up  a  good  deal  lately, 
and  there's  some  big  trees  fallen  along  there,  and,  if  they  ha'n't 
got  them  out  of  the  way,  you  may  have  some  difficulty  in  finding 
where  the  road  is  ;  but  you  keep  bearing  off  to  the  right,  where 
it's  the  most  open  (?'.  e.,  the  wood),  and  you'll  see  it  again  pretty 
soon.  Then,  you  go  on,  keeping  along  in  the  road — you'll  see 
where  folks  have  traveled  before — for  maybe  quarter  of  a  mile, 
and  you'll  find  a  cross-road ;  you  must  take  that  to  the  left ; 
pretty  soon  you'll  pass  two  cabins ;  one  of  'em's  old  and  all 
fallen  in,  the  other  one's  new,  and  there's  a  white  man  lives  into 
it:  you  can't  mistake  it.  About  a  hundred  yards  beyond  it,  there's 
a  fork,  and  you  take  the  left — it  turns  square  off,  and  it's  fenced 
for  a  good  bit ;  keep  along  by  the  fence,  and  you  can't  miss  it. 
It's  right  straight  beyond  that  till  you  come  to  a  school-house, 


VIRGINIA.  61 

there's  a  gate  opposite  to  it,  and  off  there  there's  a  big  house- 
but  I  don't  reckon  you'll  see  it  neither,  for  the  woods.  But  some- 
where, about  three  hundred  yards  beyond  the  school-house,  you'll 
find  a  little  road  running  off  to  the  left  through  an  old  field ; 
you  take  that  and  keep  along  in  it,  and  in  less  than  half  a  mile 
you'll  find  a  path  going  square  oft'  to  the  right ;  you  take  that, 
and  keep  on  it  till  you  pass  a  little  cabin  in  the  woods ;  aint 
nobody  lives  there  now :  then  it  turns  to  the  left,  and  when  you 
come  to  a  fence  and  gate,  you'll  see  a  house  there,  that's  Mr. 
George  Eivers'  plantation — it  breaks  in  two,  and  you  take  the 
right,  and  when  you  come  to  the  end  of  the  fence,  turn  the 
corner — don't  keep  on,  but  turn  there.  Then  it's  straight,  till 
you  come  to  the  creek  again — there's  a  bridge  there ;  don't  go 
over  the  bridge,  but  turn  to  the  left  and  keep  along  nigh  the 
creek,  and  pretty  soon  you'll  see  a  meeting-house  in  the  woods ; 
you  go  to  that,  and  you'll  see  a  path  bearing  off  to  the  right 
— it  looks  as  if  it  was  going  right  away  from  the  creek,  but 
you  take  it,  and  pretty  soon  it'll  bring  you  to  a  saw-mill  on  the 
creek,  up  higher  a  piece ;  you  just  cross  the  creek  there,  and 
you'll  find  some  people  at  the  mill,  and  they'll  put  you  right 
straight  on  the  road  to  Mr.  W.'s." 

" How  far  is  it  all,  sir?" 

"  I  reckon  it's  about  two  hours'  ride,  when  the  roads  are  good, 
to  the  saw-mill.  Mr.  W.'s  gate  is  only  a  mile  or  so  beyond 
that,  and  then  you've  got  another  mile,  or  better,  after  you  get 
to  the  gate,  but  you'll  see  some  nigger-quarters — the  niggers 
belong  to  Mr.  W.,  and  I  reckon  ther'll  be  some  of  'em  round, 
and  they'll  show  you  just  where  to  go." 

After  reading  over  my  memorandum,  and  finding  it  correct, 
and  agreeing  with  him  that  I  should  pay  two  dollars  a  day  for 


62  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

tlie  mare,  we  walked  out,  and  found  her  saddled  and  waiting 
for  me. 

I  remarked  that  she  was  very  good-looking. 

"  Yes,  sir ;  she  a'nt  a  bad  filly ;  out  of  a  mare  that  came  of 
Lady  Eackett  by  old  Lord-knows-who,  the  best  horse  we  ever 
had  in  this  part  of  the  country :  I  expect  you  have  heard  of  him. 
Oh!  she's  maybe  a  little  playful,  but  you'll  find  her  a  pleasant 
riding-horse." 

The  filly  was  just  so  pleasantly  playful,  and  full  of  well-bred 
life,  as  to  create  a  joyful,  healthy,  sympathetic,  frolicsome  heed- 
lessness in  her  rider — walking  rapidly,  and  with  a  sometimes 
irresistible  inclination  to  dance  and  bound ;  making  believe  she 
was  frightened  at  all  the  burnt  stumps,  and  flashes  of  sun-light  on 
the  ice,  and,  every  time  a  bog  lifted  himself  up  before  her,  start- 
ing back  in  the  most  ridiculous  manner,  as  if  she  bad  never  seen 
a  hog  before ;  bounding  over  the  fallen  trees  as  easily  as  a  life- 
boat over  a  billow  ;  and  all  the  time  gracefully  playing  tricks 
with  her  feet,  and  her  ears,  and  her  tail,  and  evidently  enjoying 
herself  just  like  any  child  in  a  half-holiday  ramble  through  the 
woods,  yet  never  failing  to  answer  to  every  motion  of  my  hand 
or  my  knees,  as  if  she  were  a  part  of  myself.  In  fact,  there  soon 
came  to  be  a  real  good  understanding,  if  not  even  something 
like  a  merging  of  identity,  between  Jane  and  me  (the  filly's  name 
was  Jane  Gillin) ;  if  her  feet  were  not  in  the  stirrups,  I  am  sure 
I  had  all  the  sensation  of  tripping  it  on  the  ground  with  mine, 
half  the  time,  and  we  both  entered  into  each  other's  feelings,  and 
moved,  and  were  moved,  together,  in  a  way  which  a  two  hours' 
lecture,  by  a  professor  of  psychology,  would  be  insufficient,  satis- 
factorily, to  explain  to  people  who  never but  all  that's  of  no 

consequence,  except  that,  of  course,  we  soon  lost  our  way. 


VIRGINIA.  63 

We  were  walking  along  slowly,  quietly,  musingly — I  was 
fondling  her  with  my  hand  under  her  mane,  when  it  suddenly 
came  into  my  mind :  "  why  Jane !  it's  a  long  time  since  I've 
thought  anything  about  the  road — I  wonder  where  we've  got  to." 
We  stopped  and  tried  to  work  up  our  dead-reckoning. 

First,  we  picked  our  way  from  the  store  down  to  the  brook, 
through  a  deeply  corrugated  clay-road.;  then  there  was  the 
swamp,  with  the  fallen  trees  and  thick  underwood,  beaten  down 
and  barked  in  the  miry  parts  by  wagons,  making  a  road  for 
themselves,  no  traces  of  which  could  we  find  in  the  harder, 
pebbly  ground.  At  length  when  we  came  on  to  drier  land,  and 
among  pine  trees,  we  discovered  a  clear  way  cut  through  them, 
and  a  distinct  road  before  us  again ;  and  this  brought  us  soon 
to  an  old  clearing,  just  beginning  to  be  grown  over  with  pines,  in 
which  was  the  old  cabin  of  rotten  logs,  one  or  two  of  them  falling 
out  of  rank  on  the  door-side,  and  the  whole  concern  having  a 
dangerous  lurch  to  one  corner,  as  if  too  much  whisky  had  been 
drank  in  it :  then  a  more  recent  clearing,  with  a  fenced  field  and 
another  cabin,  the  residence  of  that  white  man  we  were  told  of 
probably.  No  white  people,  however,  were  to  be  seen,  but  two 
negroes  sat  in  the  mouth  of  a  wigwam,  husking  maize,  and  a 
couple  of  hungry  hounds  came  bounding  over  the  zig-zag,  gate- 
less  fence,  as  if  they  had  agreed  with  each  other  that  they  would 
wait  no  longer  for  the  return  of  their  master,  but  would  straight- 
way pull  down  the  first  traveler  that  passed,  and  have  something 
to  eat  before  they  were  quite  famished.  They  stopped  short, 
however,  when  they  had  got  within  a  good  cart-whip's  length  of 
us,  and  contented  themselves  with  dolefully  youping  as  long  as 
we  continued  in  sight.  We  turned  the  corner,  following  some 
slight  traces  of  a  road,  and  shortly  afterwards  met  a  curious 


64  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

vehicular  establishment,  probably  belonging  to  the  master  of  the 
hounds.  It  consisted  of  an  axle-tree  and  wheels,  and  a  pair  of 
shafts  made  of  unbarked  saplings,  in  which  was  harnessed,  by 
attachments  of  raw-hide  and  rope,  a  single  small  black  ox. 
There  was  a  bit,  made  of  telegraph-wire,  in  his  mouth,  by  which 
he  was  guided,  through  the  mediation  of  a  pair  of  much  knotted 
rope-reins,  by  a  white  man — a  dignified  sovereign,  wearing  a 
brimless  crown — who  sat  upon  a  two-bushel  sack,  (of  meal,  I 
trust,  for  the  hounds'  sake,)  balanced  upon  the  axle-tree,  and  who 
saluted  me  with  a  frank  "  How  are  you  ?"  as  we  came  opposite 
each  other. 

Soon  after  this,  we  reached  a  small  grove  of  much  older  and 
larger  pines  than  we  had  seen  before,  with  long  and  horizontally 
stretching  branches,  and  duller  and  thinner  foliage.  In  the 
middle  of  it  was  another  log-cabin,  with  a  door  in  one  of  tbe 
gable-ends,  a  stove-pipe,  half-rusted  away,  protruding  from  the 
other,  and,  in  the  middle  of  one  of  the  sides,  a  small  square 
port-hole,  closed  by  a  wooden  shutter.  This  must  have  been 
the  school-house,  but  there  were  no  children  then  about  it,  and 
no  appearance  of  there  having  been  any  lately.  Near  it  was  a 
long  string  of  fence  and  a  gate  and  lane,  which  gave  entrance, 
probably,  to  a  large  plantation,  though  there  was  no  cultivated 
land  within  sight  of  the  road. 

I  could  remember  hardly  anything  after  this,  except  a  continu- 
ation of  pine  trees,  big,  little,  and  medium  in  size,  and  hogs, 
and  a  black,  crooked,  burnt  sapling,  that  we  had  made  believe 
was  a  snake  springing  at  us  and  had  jumped  away  from,  and  then 
we  had  gone  on  at  a  trot — it  must  have  been  some  time  ago,  that 
— and  then  I  was  paying  attentions  to  Jane,  and  finally  my 
thoughts  had  gone  wool-gathering,  and  we  must  have  traveled 


VIRGINIA.  65 

some  miles  out  of  our  way  and — "  never  mind,"  said  Jane,  lifting 
her  head,  and  turning  in  the  direction  we  had  been  going,  "  I 
don't  think  it's  any  great  matter  if  we  are  lost ;  such  a  fine  day — 
so  long  since  I've  been  out;  if  you  don't  care,  I'd  just  as  lief  be 
lost  as  not ;  let's  go  on  and  see  what  we  shall  come  to." 

"  Very  well,  my  dear,  you  know  the  country  better  than  I  do  ; 
go  where  you  like ;  if  you'll  risk  your  dinner,  I'm  quite  ready  to 
go  anywhere  in  your  company.  It's  quite  certain  we  have  not 
passed  any  meeting-house,  or  creek,  or  saw-mill,  or  negro-quar- 
ters, and,  as  we  have  been  two  hours  on  the  road,  it's  evident  we 
are  not  going  straight  to  Mr.  W.'s. ;  I'll  try  at  least  to  take  note 
of  what  we  do  pass  after  this,"  and  I  stood  up  in  the  stirrups  as 
we  walked  on,  to  see  what  the  country  around  us  was. 

"  Old  fields" — a  coarse,  yellow,  sandy  soil,  bearing  scarce 
anything  but  pine  trees  and  broom-sedge.  In  some  places,  for 
acres,  the  pines  would  not  be  above  five  feet  high — that  was  land 
that  had  been  in  cultivation,  used  up  and  "turned  out,"  not  more 
than  six  or  eight  years  before ;  then  there  were  patches  of  every 
age ;  sometimes  the  trees  were  a  hundred  feet  high.  At  long 
intervals,  there  were  fields  in  which  the  pine  was  just  beginning 
to  spring  in  beautiful  green  plumes  from  the  ground,  and  was 
yet  hardly  noticeable  among  the  dead  brown  grass  and  sassafras 
bushes  and  blackberry-vines,  which  nature  first  sends  to  hide  the 
nakedness  of  the  impoverished  earth. 

Of  living  creatures,  for  miles,  not  one  was  to  be  seen  (not 
even  a  crow  or  a  snow-bird),  except  hogs.  These — long,  lank, 
bony,  snake-headed,  hairy,  wild  beasts — would  come  dashing 
across  our  path,  in  packs  of  from  three  to  a  dozen,  with  short, 
hasty  grunts,  almost  always  at  a  gallop,  and  looking  neither  to 
right  nor  left,  as  if  they  were  in  pursuit  of  a  fox,  and  were 


66  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

quite  certain  to  catch  him  in  the  next  hundred  yards ;  or  droves 
of  little  pigs  would  rise  up  suddenly  in  the  sedge,  and  scamper 
off  squealing  into  cover,  while  their  heroic  mothers  would  turn 
around  and  make  a  stand,  looking  fiercely  at  us,  as  if  they  were 
quite  ready  to  fight  if  we  advanced  any  further,  but  always 
breaking,  as  we  came  near,  with  a  loud  boosch  ! 

Once  I  saw  a  house,  across  a  large,  new  old-field,  but  it  was 
far  off",  and  there  was  no  distinct  path  leading  towards  it  out  of 
the  wagon-track  we  were  following ;  so  we  did  not  go  to  it,  but 
continued  walking  steadily  on  through  the  old-fields  and  pine 
woods  for  more  than  an  hour  longer. 

We  then  arrived  at  a  grove  of  tall  oak  trees,  in  the  midst  of 
which  ran  a  brook,  giving  motion  to  a  small  grist-mill.  Back 
of  the  mill  were  two  log  cabins,  and  near  these  a  number  of 
negroes,  in  holiday  clothes,  were  standing  in  groups  among  the 
trees.  When  we  stopped  one  of  them  came  towards  us.  He 
wore  a  battered  old  hat,  of  the  cylindrical  fashion,  stiffly  starched 
shirt-collar,  cutting  his  ears,  a  red  cravat,  and  an  old  black  dress 
coat,  thread-bare  and  a  little  ragged,  but  adorned  with  new  brass 
buttons.  He  knew  Mr.  Thomas  W.,  certainly  he  did ;  and  he 
reckoned  I  had  come  about  four  miles  (he  did  not  know  but  it 
might  be  eight,  if  I  thought  so)  off  the  road  I  had  been  directed 
to  follow.  But  that  was  of  no  consequence,  because  he  could 
show  me  where  to  go  by  a  straight  road — a  cross  cut — from 
here,  that  would  make  it  just  as  quick  for  me  as  if  I  had  gone 
the  way  I  had  intended. 

"  How  far  is  it  from  here  ?"  I  asked. 

"  Oh,  'taint  far,  sar." 

"How  far  do  you  think?" 

"  Well,  massa,  I  spec — I  spec — (looking  at  my  horse)  I  spec, 


VIRGINIA.  67 

massa,  ef  you  goes  de  way,  sar,  dat  I  shows  you,  sar,  I  reckon 
it  '11  take  you — " 

"  How  far  is  it — how  many  miles  f" 

"  How  many  miles,  sar  1  ha !  masser,  I  don  'zactly  reckon  I 
ken  tell  ou — not  'cisely,  sar — how  many  miles  it  is,  not  'zactly, 
'cisely,  sar." 

"How  is  that — you  don't  what?" 

"  I  don't  'zactly  reckon  I  can  give  you  de  drection  excise 
about  de  miles,  sar." 

"  Oh !  hut  how  many  miles  do  you  think  it  is ;  is  it  two 
miles  V 

"  Yes,  sar ;  as  de  roads  is  now,  I  tink  it  is  just  about  two 
miles.     Dey's  long  ones,  dough,  I  reckon." 

"  Long  ones  1  you  think  it's  more  than  two  miles,  don't  you, 
then?" 

"  Yes,  sar,  I  reckon  its  four  or  five  miles." 

"  Four  or  five !  four  or  five  long  ones  or  short  ones  do  yon 
mean?" 

"  I  don  'zactly  know,  sar,  wedder  dey  is  short  ones  or  long 
ones,  sar,  but  I  reckon  you  find  em  middlin'  long ;  I  spec  you'll 
be  about  two  hours  'fore  you  be  done  gone  all  de  way  to  mass 
W.'s." 

He  walked  on  with  us  a  few  rods  upon  a  narrow  path,  until 
we  came  to  a  crossing  of  the  stream ;  pointing  to  where  it  con- 
tinued on  the  other  side,  he  assured  me  that  it  went  right  straight 
to  Mr.  W.'s  plantation.  "  You  juss  keep  de  straight  road,  mas- 
ter," he  repeated  several  times,  "  and  it'll  take  you  right  dar, 
sar." 

He  had  been  grinning  and  bowing,  and  constantly  touching 
his  hat,  or  holding  it  in  his  hand  during  our  conversation,  which 


68  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

I  understood  to  mean,  that  he  would  thank  me  for  a  dime.  I  gave 
it  to  him,  upon  which  he  repeated  his  contortions  and  his  form 
of  direction — "keep  de  straight  road."  I  rode  through  the 
brook,  and  he  called  out  again — "  you  keep  dat  road  right  straight 
and  it'll  take  you  right  straight  dar."  I  rode  up  the  bank  and 
entered  the  oak  wood,  and  still  again  heard  him  enjoining  me 
to  "  keep  dat  road  right  straight." 

Within  less  than  quarter  of  a  mile,  there  was  a  fork  in  the 
road  to  the  left,  which  seemed  a  good  deal  more  traveled  than 
the  straight  one ;  nevertheless  I  kept  the  latter,  and  was  soon 
well  satisfied  that  I  had  done  so.  It  presently  led  me  up  a  slope 
out  of  the  oak  woods  into  a  dark  evergreen  forest ;  and  though 
it  was  a  mere  bridle-path,  it  must  have  existed,  I  thought,  before 
the  trees  began  to  grow,  for  it  was  free  of  stumps,  and  smooth 
and  clean  as  a  garden  walk,  and  the  pines  grew  thickly  up,  about 
four  feet  apart,  on  each  side  of  it,  their  branches  meeting,  just 
clear  of  my  head,  and  making  a  dense  shade.  There  was  an 
agreeable,  slightly  balsamic  odor  in  the  air ;  the  path  was  cov- 
ered with  a  deep,  elastic  mat  of  pine  leaves,  so  that  our  footstep 
could  hardly  be  heard  ;  and  for  a  time  we  greatly  enjoyed  going 
along  at  a  lazy,  pacing  walk  of  Jane's.  It  was  noon-day,  and 
had  been  rather  warmer  than  was  quite  agreeable  on  the  open 
road,  and  I  took  my  hat  off,  and  let  the  living  pine  leaves  brush 
my  hair.  But,  after  a  while,  I  felt  slightly  chilly ;  and  when 
Jane,  at  the  same  time,  gave  a  little  sympathizing  caper,  I  bent 
my  head  down,  that  the  limbs  might  not  hit  me,  until  it  nearly 
rested  on  her  neck,  dropped  my  hands  and  pressed  my  knees 
tightly  against  her.     Away  we  bounded ! 

What  a  glorious  gallop  Jane  had  inherited  from  her  noble 
grandfather ! 


VIRGINIA.  69 

Out  of  the  cool,  dark-green  alley,  at  last,  and  soon  with  a  more 
cautious  step,  down  a  steep,  stony  declivity,  set  with  deciduous 
trees — beech,  ash,  oak,  gum — "  gum,"  beloved  of  the  "  minstrels." 
A  brawling  shallow  brook  at  the  bottom,  into  which  our  path 
descended,  though  on  the  opposite  shore  was  a  steep  high  bank, 
faced  by  an  impenetrable  brake  of  bush  and  briar. 

Have  we  been  following  a  path  only  leading  to  a  watering- 
place,  then?  I  see  no  continuance  of  it.  Jane  does  not  hesi- 
tate at  all ;  but,  as  if  it  was  the  commonest  thing  here  to  take 
advantage  of  nature's  engineering  in  this  way,  walking  into  the 
water,  turns  her  head  up  stream. 

For  more  than  a  mile  we  continued  following  up  the  brook, 
which  was  all  the  time  walled  in  by  insurmountable  banks,  over- 
hung by  large  trees.  Sometimes  it  swept  strongly  through  a  deep 
channel,  contracted  by  boulders ;  sometimes  purled  and  tinkled 
over  a  pebbly  slope ;  and  sometimes  stood  in  broad,  silent  pools, 
around  the  edges  of  which  remained  a  skirt  of  ice,  held  there  by 
bushes  and  long,  broken  water-grasses.  Across  the  end  of  one 
of  these,  barring  our  way,  a  dead  trunk  had  lately  fallen.  Jane 
walked  up  to  it  and  turned  her  head  to  the  right.  "No,"  said 
I,  "let's  go  over."  She  turned,  and  made  a  step  left — "No! 
over,"  said  I,  drawing  her  back,  and  touching  her  with  my  heels. 

Over  we  went,  landing  with  such  a  concussion  that  I  was  nearly 
thrown  off.  I  fell  forward  upon  Jane's  neck ;  she  threw  up  her 
head,  spurning  my  involuntary  embrace  ;  and  then,  with  swollen 
nostrils  and  flashing  eyes,  walked  on  rapidly. 
I  "  Hope  you  are  satisfied,"  said  she,  as  I  pulled  my  coat  doWn ; 
"  if  not,  you  had  better  spur  me  again." 

"  Why,  my  dear  girl,  what 's  the  matter?  It  was  nothing  but 
leather — calf-skin — that  I  touched  you  with.     I  have  no  spurs— 


70  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

don't  you  see?"  for  she  was  turning  her  head  to  bite  my  foot, 
"  Now,  don't  be  foolish." 

"  Well,  well,"  said  she,  "  I'm  a  good  tempered  girl,  if  I  am 
blood ;  let's  stop  and  drink." 

After  this,  we  soon  came  to  pine  woods  again.  Jane  was 
now  for  leaving  the  brook.  I  let  her  have  her  own  way,  and 
she  soon  found  a  beaten  track  in  the  woods.  It  certainly  was 
not  the  "straight  road"  we  had  been  directed  to  follow;  but  its 
course  was  less  crooked  than  that  of  the  brook,  and  after  some 
time  it  led  us  out  into  a  more  open  country,  with  young  pines 
and  inclosed  fields.  Eventually  we  came  to  a  gate  and  lane, 
which  we  followed  till  we  came  to  another  cross-lane,  leading 
straight  to  a  farm-house. 

As  soon  as  we  turned  into  the  cross-lane,  half-a-dozen  little 
negro  boys  and  girls  were  seen  running  towards  the  house, 
to  give  alarm.  We  passed  a  stable,  with  a  cattle-pen  by  its 
side,  opposite  which  was  a  vegetable  garden,  enclosed  with  split 
palings;  then  across  a  running  stream  of  water;  then  by  a  small 
cabin  on  the  right;  and  a  corn-crib  and  large  pen,  with  a 
number  of  fatting  hogs  in  it,  on  the  left;  then  into  a  large, 
irregular  yard,  in  the  midst  of  which  was  the  farm-house,  before 
which  were  now  collected  three  white  children,  six  black  ones, 
two  negro  women,  and  an  old  lady  with  spectacles. 

"How  dy  do,  sir?"  said  the  old  lady,  as  we  reined  up, 
bowed,  and  lifted  our  hat,  and  put  our  black  foot  foremost. 

"  Thank  you,  madam,  quite  well ;  but  I  have  lost  my  way 
to  Mr.  Thomas  W.'s,  and  will  trouble  you  to  tell  me  how  to» 
go  from  here  to  get  to  his  house." 

By  this  time  a  black  man  came  cautiously  walking  in  from  the 
field  back  of  the  house,  bringing  an  axe ;  a  woman,  who  had 


VIRGINIA. 


71 


been  washing  clothes  in  the  brook,  left  her  work  and  came  up  on 
the  other  side,  and  two  more  girls  climbed  up  on  to  a  heap  of  logs 
that  had  been  thrown  upon  the  ground,  near  the  porch,  for  fuel. 


The  swine  were  making  a  great  noise  in  their  pen,  as  if  feeding- 
time  had  come ;  and  a  flock  of  turkeys  were  gobbling  so  inces- 
santly and  loudly  that  I  was  not  heard.  The  old  lady  ordered 
the  turkeys  to  be  driven  away,  but  nobody  stirred  to  do  it,  and 
I  rode  nearer  and  repeated  my  request.  No  better  success. 
"  Can't  you  shew  away  them  turkeys  ?"  she  asked  again ;  but 
nobody  "  shewed."  A  third  time  I  endeavored  to  make  myself 
•understood.  "  Will  you  please  direct  me  how  to  go  to  Mr.  W.'s?" 
"  No,  sir — not  here." 

"Excuse  me — I  asked  if  you  would  direct  me  to  Mr.  W.'s." 
"If  some  of  you  niggers  don't  shew  them  turkeys,  I'll  have 
you  all  whipped  as    soon  as  your  mass  John   comes  home," 
exclaimed  the  old  lady,  now  quite  excited.     The  man  with  the 


72  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

axe,  without  moving  towards  them  at  all,  picked  up  a  billet  of 
wood  and  threw  it  at  the  biggest  cock-turkey,  who  immediately 
collapsed ;  and  the  whole  flock  scattered,  chased  by  the  two  girls 
who  had  been  on  the  log-heap. 

"An't  dat  Colonel  Gillen's  mare,  master?"  asked  the  black 
man,  coming  up  on  my  left. 

"  You  Avant  to  go  to  Thomas  W.'s  ?"  asked  the  old  lady. 

"  Yes,  madam." 

"  It's  a  good  many  years  since  I  have  been  to  Thomas  W.'s, 
and  I  reckon  I  can't  tell  you  how  to  go  there  now." 

"If  master '11  go  over  to  Missy  Abler's,  I  reckon  dey  ken 
tell  'em  dah,  sar." 

"  And  how  shall  I  go  to  Mrs.  Abler's  ?" 

"  You  want  to  go  to  Missy  Abler's ;  you  take  dat  path  right 
over  'yond  dem  bars,  dar,  by  de  hog-pen,  dat  runs  along  by  dat 
fence  into  de  woods,  and  dat '11  take  you  right  straight  dar." 

"Is  you  come  from  Colonel  Gillin's,  massa?"  asked  the  wash- 
woman. 

"Yes." 

"  Did  you  see  a  black  man  dar,  day  calls  Tom,  sar  ?" 

"Yes." 

"  Tom's  my  husband,  massa ;  if  you's  gwine  back  dah,  wish 
you'd  tell  um,  ef  you  please,  sar,  dat  I  wants  to  see  him  particu- 
lar ;  will  ou,  massa?" 

"Yes." 

"  Tank  you,  massa." 

I  bowed  to  the  old  lady,  and,  in  turning  to  ride  off,  saw  two 
other  negro  boys  who  had  come  out  of  the  woods,  and  were  now 
leaning  over  the  fence,  and  staring  at  us,  as  if  I  was  a  giant  and 
Jane  was  a  dragoness. 


VIRGINIA.  73 

We  trotted  away,  found  the  path,  and  in  course  of  a  mile  had 
our  choice  of  at  least  twenty  forks  to  go  "  straight  to  Mrs. 
Abler's."  At  length,  cleared  land  again,  fences,  stubble-fields 
and  a  lane,  that  took  us  to  a  little  cabin,  which  fronted,  much  to 
my  surprise,  upon  a  broad  and  well-traveled  road.  Over  the 
door  of  the  cabin  was  a  sign,  done  in  black,  upon  a  hogshead 
stave,  showing  that  it  was  a  "  Grosery,"  which,  in  Virginia, 
means  the  same  thing  as  in  Ireland — a  dram-shop. 

I  hung  the  bridle  over  a  rack  before  the  door,  and  walked 
in.  At  one  end  of  the  interior  was  a  range  of  shelves,  on  which 
were  two  decanters,  some  dirty  tumblers,  a  box  of  crackers,  a 
canister,  and  several  packages  in  paper ;  under  the  shelves  were 
a  table  and  a  barrel.  At  the  other  end  of  the  room  was  a  fire- 
place ;  near  this,  a  chest,  and  another  range  of  shelves,  on  which 
stood  plates  and  cooking  utensils  :  between  these  and  the  grocery 
end  were  a  bed  and  a  spinning-wheel.  Near  the  spinning-wheel 
sat  a  tall,  bony,  sickly,  sullen  young  woman,  nursing  a  lan- 
guishing infant.  The  faculty  would  not  have  discouraged  either 
of  them  from  trying  hydropathic  practice.  In  a  corner  of  the 
fire-place  sat  a  man,  smoking  a  pipe.  He  rose,  as  I  entered, 
walked  across  to  the  grocery-shelves,  turned  a  chair  round  at 
the  table,  and  asked  me  to  take  a  seat.  I  excused  myself,  and 
requested  him  to  direct  me  to  Mr.  W.'s.  He  had  heard  of  such 
a  man  living  somewhere  about  there,  but  he  did  not  know  where. 
He  repeated  this,  with  an  oath,  when  I  declined  to  "  take " 
anything,  and  added,  that  he  had  not  lived  here  long,  and  he 
was  sorry  he  had  ever  come  here.  It  was  the  worst  job,  for 
himself,  ever  he  did,  when  he  came  here,  though  all  he  wanted 
was  to  just  get  a  living. 

I  rode  on  till  I  came  to  another  house,  a  very  pleasant  little 


74  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

house,  'with  a  steep,  gabled  roof,  curving  at  the  bottom,  and 
extending  over  a  little  gallery,  which  was  entered,  by  steps,  from 
the  road;  back  of  it  were  stables  and  negro-cabins,  and  by 
its  side  was  a  small  garden,  and  beyond  that  a  peach-orchard. 
As  I  approached  it,  a  well-dressed  young  man,  with  an  in- 
telligent and  pleasant  face,  came  out  into  the  gallery.  I  asked 
him  if  he  could  direct  me  to  Mr.  W.'s.  "  Thomas  W.'s  ?"  he 
inquired. 

"Yes,  sir." 

"You  are  not  going  in  the  right  direction  to  go  to  Mr.  "W.'s. 
The  shortest  way  you  can  take  to  go  there  is,  to  go  right  back 
to  the  Court  House." 

I  told  him  I  had  just  come  out  of  the  lane  by  the  grocery  on 
to  the  road.  "  Ah !  well,  I'll  tell  you ;  you  had  better  turn 
round,  and  keep  right  straight  upon  this  road  till  you  get  to  the 
Court  House,  and  anybody  can  tell  you,  there,  how  to  go." 

"How  far  is  it,  sir?" 

"  To  the  Court  House  ? — not  above  a  mile." 

"And  to  Mr.  W.'s?" 

"  To  Mr.  "W.'s,  I  should  think  it  was  as  much  as  ten  miles, 
and  long  ones,  too." 

I  rode  to  the  Court  House,  which  was  a^plain  brick  building 
in  the  centre  of  a  small  square,  around  which  there  were  twenty 
or  thirty  houses,  two  of  them  being  occupied  as  stores,  one  as 
a  saddler's  shop,  one  had  the  sign  of  "  Lawr  Office"  upon  it,  two 
were  occupied  by  physicians,  one  other  looked  as  if  it  might  be 
a  meeting-house  or  school-house,  or  the  shop  of  any  mechanic 
needing  much  light  for  his  work,  and  two  were  "  Hotels."  At 
one  of  these  we  stopped,  to  dine  ;  Jane  had  "  corn  and  fodder  " 
(they  had  no  oats  or  bay  in  the  stable),  and  I  had  ham  and  eggs 


VIRGINIA.  75 

(they  had  no  fresh  meat  in  the  house).  I  had  several  other 
things,  however,  that  were  very  good,  besides  the  company  of 
the  landlady,  who  sat  alone  with  me,  at  the  table,  in  a  long, 
dining  hall,  and  was  very  pretty,  amiable,  and  talkative. 

In  a  course  of  apologies,  which  came  in  the  place  of  soup,  she 
gave  me  the  clue  to  the  assemblage  of  negroes  I  had  seen  at  the 
mill.  It  was  Christmas  week;  all  the  servants  thought  they 
must  go  for  at  least,  one  day,  to  have  a  frolic,  and  to-day  (as 
luck  would  have  it,  when  I  was  coming,)  her  cook  was  off  with 
some  others ;  she  did  not  suppose  they'd  be  back  till  to-morrow, 
and  then,  likely  as  not,  they'd  be  drunk.  She  did  not  think  this 
custom,  of  letting  servants  go  so,  at  Christmas,  was  a  good  one ; 
niggers  were  not  fit  to  be  let  to  take  care  of  themselves,  anyhow. 
It  was  very  bad  for  them,  and  she  didn't  think  it  was  right. 
Providence  had  put  the  servants  into  our  hands  to  be  looked 
out  for,  and  she  didn't  believe  it  was  intended  they  should  be  let 
to  do  all  sorts  of  wickedness,  if  Christmas  didn't  come  but  once 
a  year.     She  wished,  for  her  part,  it  did  not  come  but  once  in 

ten  years. 

(The  negroes,  that  were  husking  maize  near  the  cabin  where 
the  White-man  lived,  were,  no  doubt,  slaves,  who  had  hired 
themselves  out  by  the  day,  during  the  holiday-week,  to  earn  a 
little  money  on  their  own  account.) 

In  regard  to  the  size  of  the  dining  hall,  and  the  extent  of 
sheds  in  the  stable-yard,  the  landlady  told  me  that  though  at 
other  times  they  very  often  did  not  have  a  single  guest  in  a  day, 
at  "Court  time"  they  always  had  more  than  they  could  com- 
fortably accommodate.  I  judged,  also,  from  her  manners,  and 
the  general  appearance  of  the  house,  as  well  as  from  the  charges, 
that,  at  such  times,  the  company  was  of  a  rather  respectable 


76  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

character.  The  appearance  of  the  other  public-house  indicated 
that  it  expected  a  less  select  patronage. 

When  I  left,  my  direction  was  to  keep  on  the  main  road  until 
I  came  to  a  fork,  about  four  miles  distant,  then  take  the  left,  and 
keep  the  best  traveled  road,  until  I  came  to  a  certain  house,  which 
was  so  described  that  I  should  know  it,  where  I  was  advised  to 
ask  further  directions. 

The  sky  was  now  clouding  over ;  it  was  growing  cold ;  and  we 
went  on,  as  fast  as  we  conveniently  could,  until  we  reached 
the  fork  in  the  road.  The  direction,  to  keep  the  best  traveled 
road,  was  unpleasantly  prominent  in  my  mind ;  it  was  near  sun- 
set, I  reflected,  and,  however  jolly  it  might  be  at  twelve  o'clock 
at  noon,  it  would  be  quite  another  thing  to  be  knocking  about 
among  those  fierce  hogs  in  the  pine-forest,  if  I  should  be  lost, 
at  twelve  o'clock  at  night.  Besides,  as  the  landlady  said  about 
her  negroes,  I  did  not  think  it  was  right  to  expose  Jane  to  this 
danger,  unnecessarily.  A  little  beyond  the  fork,  there  was  a 
large,  gray,  old  house,  with  a  grove  of  tall  poplars  before  it ;  a 
respectable,  country-gentleman-of-the-old-school  look  it  had. — 
These  old  Virginians  are  proverbially  hospitable. — It's  rather 
impudent ;  but  I  hate  to  go  back  to  the  Court  House,  and  I  am 
1  will  ride  on,  and  look  it  in  the  face,  at  any  rate. 

Zig-zag  fences  up  to  a  large,  square  yard,  growing  full  of 
Lombardy  poplar  sprouts,  from  the  roots  of  eight  or  ten  old 
trees,  which  were  planted  some  fifty  years  ago,  I  suppose,  in  a 
double  row,  on  two  sides  of  the  house.  At  the  further  end  of 
this  yard,  beyond  the  house,  a  gate  opened  on  the  road,  and  out 
of  this  was  just  then  coming  a  black  man. 

I  inquired  of  him  if  there  was  a  house,  near  by,  at  which  I 
could  get  accommodations  for  the  night.     Beckoned  his  master'd 


VIRGINIA.  77 

take  me  in,  if  I'd  ask  him.  Where  was  his  master?  In  the 
house :  I  could  go  right  in  here  (at  a  place  where  a  panel  of  the 
paling  had  fallen  over)  and  see  him,  if  I  wanted  to.  I  asked 
him  to  hold  my  horse,  and  went  in. 

It  Avas  a  simple,  two-story  house,  very  much  like  those  built 
by  the  wealthier  class  of  people  in  New  England  villages,  from 
fifty  to  a  hundred  years  ago,  except  that  the  chimneys  were 
carried  up  outside  the  walls.  There  was  a  porch  at  the  front 
door,  and  a  small  wing  at  one  end,  in  the  rear ;  from  this  wing 
to  the  other  end  extended  a  broad  gallery. 

A  dog  had  been  barking  at  me  after  I  dismounted ;  and  just 
as  I  reached  the  steps  of  the  gallery,  a  vigorous,  middle-aged 
man,  with  a  rather  sullen  and  suspicious  expression  of  face,  came 
out  without  any  coat  on,  to  see  what  had  excited  him. 

Doubting  whether  he  was  the  master  of  the  house,  I  told 
him  that  I  had  come  in  to  inquire  if  it  would  be  convenient  to 
allow  me  to  spend  the  night  with  them.  He  asked  where  I 
came  from,  where  I  was  going  to,  and  various  other  questions, 
until  I  had  given  him  an  epitome  of  my  day's  wanderings  and 
adventures  ;  at  the  conclusion  of  which  he  walked  to  the  end  of 
the  gallery  to  look  at  my  horse ;  then,  without  giving  me  any 
answer,  but  muttering  indistinctly  something  about  servants, 
walked  into  the  house,  shutting  the  door  behind  him ! 

Well,  thought  I,  this  is  not  very  overwhelmingly  hospitable. 
What  can  it  mean  ? 

While  I  was  considering  whether  he  expected  me  to  go  with- 
out any  further  talk — his  curiosity  being,  I  judged,  satisfied — he 
came  out  again,  and  said,  "  Reckon  you  can  stay,  sir,  if  you  '11 
take  what  we'll  give  you."  (The  good  man  had  been  in  to  con- 
sult his  wife.)     I  replied  that  I  would  do  so,  thankfully,  and 


78  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

hoped  they  would  not  give  themselves  any  unnecessary  trouble, 
or  alter  their  usual  family  arrangements.  I  was  then  invited  to 
come  in,  but  I  preferred  to  see  my  horse  taken  care  of  first. 
My  host  called  for  "  Sam,"  two  or  three  times,  and  then  said  he 
reckoned  all  his  "  people  "  had  gone  off,  and  he  would  attend  to  my 
horse  himself.  I  offered  to  assist  him,  and  we  walked  out  to  the 
gate,  where  the  negro,  not  being  inclined  to  wait  for  my  return, 
had  left  Jane  fastened  to  a  post.  Our  host  conducted  us  to  an  old 
square  log-cabin,  which  had  formerly  been  used  for  curing  tobac- 
co, there  being  no  room  for  Jane,  he  said,  in  the  stables  proper. 

The  floor  of  the  tobacco-house  was  covered  with  lumber,  old 
plows,  scythes  and  cradles,  a  part  of  which  had  to  be  removed  to 
make  room  for  the  filly  to  stand.  She  was  then  induced,  with 
some  difficulty,  to  enter  it  through  a  low,  square  door-way ;  sad- 
dle and  bridle  were  removed,  and  she  was  fastened  in  a  corner 
by  a  piece  of  old  plow-line.  "We  then  went  to  a  fodder-stack, 
and  pulled  out  from  it  several  small  bundles  of  maize  leaves. 
Additional  feed  and  water  were  promised  when  "some  of  the 
niggers  "  came  in ;  and,  after  righting  up  an  old  door  that  had 
fallen  from  one  hinge,  and  setting  a  rail  against  it  to  keep  it  in 
its  place,  we  returned  to  the  house. 

My  host  (whom  I  will  call  Mr.  Newman)  observed  that  his 
buildings  and  fences  were  a  good  deal  out  of  order.  He  had 
owned  the  place  but  a  few  years,  and  had  not  had  time  to  make 
much  improvement  about  the  house  yet. 

Entering  the  mansion,  he  took  me  to  a  large  room  on  the  first 
floor,  gave  me  a  chair,  went  out  and  soon  returned  (now  wearing 
a  coat)  with  two  negro  girls,  one  bringing  wood  and  the  other 
some  flaming  brands.  A  fire  was  made  with  a  great  deal  of 
trouble,  scolding  of  the  girls,  bringing  in  more  brands,  and  blow- 


VIRGINIA.  79 

ing  with  the  mouth.  When  the  room  had  heen  suffocatingly 
filled  with  smoke,  and  at  length  a  strong  bright  blaze  swept 
steadily  up  the  chimney,  Mr.  Newman  again  went  out  with  the 
girls,  and  I  was  left  alone  for  nearly  an  hour,  with  one  interrup- 
tion, when  he  came  in  and  threw  some  more  wood  upon  the  fire, 
and  said  he  hoped  I  would  make  myself  comfortable. 

It  was  a  square  room,  with  a  door  from  the  hall  on  one  side,  and 
two  windows  on  each  of  the  other  sides.  The  lower  part  of  the 
walls  was  wainscoted,  and  the  upper  part,  with  the  ceiling,  plas- 
tered and  white-washed.  The  fire-place  and  mantle-piece  were 
somewhat  carved,  and  were  painted  black ;  all  the  other  wood- 
work, lead  color.  Blue  paper  curtains  covered  the  windows  ;  the 
floor  was  uncarpeted,  and  the  only  furniture  in  the  room  was 
some  strong  plain  chairs,  painted  yellow,  and  a  Connecticut 
clock,  which  did  not  run.  The  house  had  evidently  been  built 
for  a  family  of  some  wealth,  and,  after  having  been  deserted  by 
them,  had  been  bought  at  a  bargain  by  the  present  resident,  who 
either  had  not  the  capital  or  the  inclination  to  furnish  and  occupy 
it  appropriately. 

When  my  entertainer  called  again,  he  merely  opened  the  door 
and  said,  in  the  words  of  an  order,  but  in  a  tone  of  advice, 
"  Come  !  get  something  to  eat !"  I  followed  him  out  into  the 
gallery,  and  thence  through  a  door  at  its  end  into  a  room  in  the 
wing — a  family  room,  and  a  very  comfortable,  homely  room.  A 
most  bountifully  spread  supper-table  stood  in  the  centre,  at  which 
was  sitting  a  very  neat,  pretty  little  woman,  of  as  silent  habits 
as  her  husband,  but  neither  bashful  nor  morose.  A  very  nice 
little  girl  sat  at  her  right  side,  and  a  peevish,  ill-behaved,  whin- 
ing glutton  of  a  boy  at  her  left.  I  was  requested  to  be  seated 
adjoining  the  little  girl,  and  the  master  of  the  house  sat  opposite 


SO  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

me.  The  fourth  side  of  the  table  was  unoccupied,  though  a  plate 
and  chair  were  placed  there,  as  if  some  one  else  had  been  ex- 
pected. 

The  two  negro  girls  waited  at  table,  and  a  negro  boy 
was  in  the  room,  who,  when  I  asked  for  a  glass  of  water,  was 
sent  to  get  it.  An  old  negro  woman  also  frequently  came  in 
from  the  kitchen,  with  hot  biscuit  and  corn-cake.  There  was 
fried  fowl,  and  fried  bacon  and  eggs,  and  cold  ham ;  there  were 
preserved  peaches,  and  preserved  quinces  and  grapes  ;  there  was 
hot  wheaten  biscuit,  and  hot  short-cake,  and  hot  corn-cake,  and 
hot  griddle  cakes,  soaked  in  butter ;  there  Avas  coffee,  and  there 
was  milk,  sour  or  sweet,  whichever  I  preferred  to  drink.  I  really 
ate  more  than  I  wanted,  and  extolled  the  corn-cake  and  the  peach 
preserve,  and  asked  how  they  were  made ;  but  I  evidently  disap- 
pointed my  pretty  hostess,  who  said  she  was  afraid  there  wasn't 
anything  that  suited  me, — she  feared  there  wasn't  anything  on 
the  table  I  could  eat ;  and  she  was  sorry  I  couldn't  make  out  a 
supper.  And  this  was  about  all  she  would  say.  I  tried  to  get 
a  free  conversation  started,  but  I  have  myself  but  poor  endow- 
ments for  such  a  purpose,  and  I  could  obtain  little  more  than 
very  laconic  answers  to  my'  questions. 

Except  from  the  little  girl  at  my  side,  whose  confidence  I  gained 
by  taking  an  opportunity,  when  her  mother  was  engaged,  with 
young  hopeful  t'other  side  the  coffee-pot,  to  give  her  a  great  lot 
of  quince  and  grape,  and  by  several  times  pouring  molasses  very 
freely  on  her  cakes  and  bacon ;  and  finally  by  feeding  Pink  out 
of  my  hand.  (Hopeful  had  done  this  first,  and  then  kicked  him 
away,  when  he  came  round  to  Martha  and  me.)  She  told  me  her 
name,  and  that  she  had  got  a  kitten,  and  that  she  hated  Pink ; 
and  that  she  went  to  a   Sunday-school  at  the  Court  House,  and 


VIRGINIA.  81 

that  she  was  going  to  go  to  an  every-day  school  next  winter — 
she  wasn't  big  enough  to  walk  so  far  now,  but  she  would  be  then. 
But  Billy  said  he  didn't  mean  to  go,  because  he  didn't  like  to, 
though  Billy  was  bigger  nor  she  was,  a  heap.  She  reckoned 
when  Billy  saw  Wash.  Baker  going  past  every  day,  and  heard 
how  much  fun  he  had  every  day  with  the  other  boys  at  the  school, 
he  would  want  to  go  too,  wouldn't  he  %  etc.,  etc.  When  supper  was 
ended,  I  set  back  my  chair  to  the  wall,  and  took  her  on  my  knee ; 
but  after  she  had  been  told  twice  not  to  trouble  the  gentleman, 
and  I  had  testified  that  she  didn't  do  it,  and  after  several  mild 
hints  that  I  would  perhaps  find  it  pleasanter  in  the  sitting-room — 
(the  chairs  in  the  supper-room  were  the  easiest,  being  country- 
made,  low,  and  seated  with  undressed  calf-skin),  she  was  called  to, 
out  of  the  kitchen,  and  Mr.  Newman,  in  the  form  of  advice,  but 
with  the  tone  of  command,  said — going  to  the  door  and  opening 
it  for  me — "  Eeckon  you'd  better  walk  into  the  sittin'-room,  sir." 
I  walked  out  at  this,  and  said  I  would  go  and  look  at  the  filly. 
Mr.  Newman  called  "  Sam"  again,  and  Sam,  having  at  that 
moment  arrived  at  the  kitchen-door,  was  ordered  to  go  and  take 
care  of  this  gentleman's  horse.  I  followed  Sam  to  the  tobacco- 
house,  and  gave  him  to  know  that  he  would  be  properly  remem- 
bered for  any  attentions  he  could  give  to  Jane.  He  watered  her, 
and  brought  her  a  large  supply  of  oats  in  straw,  and  some  maize 
on  the  cob;  but  he  could  get  no  litter,  and  declared  there  was 
no  straw  on  the  plantation,  though  the  next  morning  I  saw  a 
large  quantity  in  a  heap  (not  a  stack),  at  a  little  greater  distance 
than  he  was  willing  to  go  for  it,  I  suppose,  at  a  barn  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  road.  Having  seen  her  rubbed  clean  and 
apparently  well  contented  with  her  quarters  and  her  supper,  I 

bade  her  good-night,  and  returned  to  the  house. 
4* 


32  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

I  did  not  venture  again  into  the  supper-room,  but  went  to  the 
sitting-room,  where  I  found  Miss  Martha  Ann  and  her  kitten ;  I 
was  having  a  very  good  time  with  her,  when  her  father  came  in 
and  told  her  she  was  "  troubling  the  gentleman ;"  I  denied  it, 
and  he  took  a  seat  by  the  fire  with  us,  and  I  soon  succeeded  in 
drawing  him  into  a  conversation  on  farming,  and  the  differences 
in  our  methods  of  work  at  the  North  and  those  he  was  accus- 
tomed to. 

WHITE    LABORING    PEOPLE. 

I  learned  that  there  were  no  white  laboring  men  here  who 
hired  themselves  out  by  the  month.  The  poor  white  people 
that  had  to  labor  for  their  living,  never  would  work  steadily  at 
any  employment.  "  They  mostly  followed  boating" — hiring  as 
hands  on  the  bateaus  that  navigate  the  small  streams  and  canals, 
but  never  for  a  longer  term  at  once  than  a  single  trip  of  a  boat, 
whether  that  might  be  long  or  short.  At  the  end  of  the  trip  they 
were  paid  by  the  day.  Their  wages  were  from  fifty  cents  to  a  dol- 
lar, varying  with  the  demand  and  individual  capacities.  They 
hardly  ever  worked  on  farms  except  in  harvest,  when  they  usually 
received  a  dollar  a  day,  sometimes  more.  In  harvest-time,  most 
of  the  rural  mechanics  closed  their  shops  and  hired  out  to  the 
farmers  at  a  dollar  a  day,  which  would  indicate  that  their  ordinary 
earnings  are  considerably  less  than  this.  At  other  than  harvest- 
time,  the  poor  white  people,  who  had  no  trade,  would  sometimes 
work  for  the  farmers  by  the  job;  not  often  at  any  regular 
agricultural  labor,  but  at  getting  rails  or  shingles,  or  clearing 
land. 

He  did  not  know  that  they  were  particular  about  working 
with  negroes,  but  no  white  man  would  ever  do  certain  kinds  of 


VIRGINIA.  83 

work  (such  as  taking  care  of  cattle,  or  getting  water  or  wood  to 
be  used  in  the  house),  and  if  you  should  ask  a  white  man  you 
had  hired,  to  do  such  things,  he  would  get  mad  and  tell  you  he 
wasn't  a  nigger.  Poor  white  girls  never  hired  out  to  do  servants' 
work,  but  they  would  come  and  help  another  white  woman  about 
her  sewing  or  quilting,  and  take  wages  for  it.  But  these  girls 
were  not  very  respectable  generally,  and  it  was  not  agreeable  to 
have  them  in  your  house,  though  there  were  some  very  respecta- 
ble ladies  that  would  go  out  to  sew.  Farmers  depended  almost 
entirely  upon  their  negroes ;  it  was  only  when  they  were  hard 
pushed  by  their  crops,  that  they  got  white  hands  to  help  them 
any. 

Negroes  had  commanded  such  high  wages  lately,  to  work 
on  railroads  and  in  tobacco-factories,  that  farmers  were  tempted 
to  hire  out  too  many  of  their  people,  and  to  undertake  to  do  too 
much  work  with  those  they  retained,  and  thus  they  were  often 
driven  to  employ  white  men,  and  to  give  them  very  high  wages 
by  the  day,  when  they  found  themselves  getting  much  behind- 
hand with  their  crops.  He  had  been  driven  very  hard  in  this 
way  this  last  season ;  he  had  been  so  unfortunate  as  to  lose  one  of 
his  best  women,  who  died  in  child-bed  just  before  harvest.  The 
loss  of  the  woman  and  her  child,  for  the  child  had  died  also,  just 
at  that  time,  came  very  hard-  upon  him.  He  would  not  have 
taken  a  thousand  dollars  of  any  man's  money  for  them.  He 
had  had  to  hire  white  men  to  help  him,  but  they  were  poor 
sticks  and  would  be  half  the  time  drunk,  and  you  never  know 
what  to  depend  upon  with  them.  One  fellow  that  he  had  hired, 
who  had  agreed  to  work  for  him  all  through  harvest,  got  him  to 
pay  him  some  wages  in  advance,  (he  said  it  was  to  buy  him 
some  clothes  with,  so  he  could  go   to  meeting,  Sunday,  at  the 


84  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

Court-House,)  and  went  off  the  next  day,  right  in  the  middle  of 
harvest,  and  he  never  had  seen  him  since.  He  had  heard  of 
him — he  was  on  a  boat — but  he  didn't  reckon  he  should  ever 
get  his  money  again. 

Of  course,  he  did  not  see  how  white  laborers  were  ever  going 
to  come  into  competition  with  negroes  here,  at  all.  You  never 
could  depend  on  white  men,  and  you  couldn't  drive  them  any  ;  they 
wouldn't  stand  it.  Slaves  Avere  the  only  reliable  laborers — you 
could  command  them  and  make  them  do  what  was  right. 

From  the  manner  in  which  he  always  talked  of  the  white 
laboring  people,  it  was  evident  that,  although  he  placed  them  in 
some  sort  on  an  equality  with  himself,  and  that  in  his  intercourse 
with  them  he  wouldn't  think  of  asserting  for  himself  any 
superior  dignity,  or  even  feel  himself  to  be  patronizing  them  in 
not  doing  so,  yet  he,  all  the  time,  recognized  them  as  a  distinct 
and  a  rather  despicable  class,  and  wanted  to  have  as  little  to  do 
with  them  as  he  conveniently  could. 

I  have  been  once  or  twice  told  that  the  poor  white  people, 
meaning  those,  I  suppose,  who  bring  nothing  to  market  to 
exchange  for  money  but  their  labor,  although  they  may  own  a 
cabin  and  a  little  furniture,  and  cultivate  land  enough  to  supply 
themselves  with  (maize)  bread,  are  worse  off  in  almost  all  respects 
than  the  slaves.  They  are  said  to  be  extremely  ignorant 
and  immoral,  as  well  as  indolent  and  unambitious.  That  their 
condition  is  not  as  unfortunate  by  any  means  as  that  of  negroes, 
however,  is  most  obvious,  since  from  among  them,  men  sometimes 
elevate  themselves  to  positions  and  habits  of  usefulness,  and 
respectability.  They  are  said  to  "  corrupt"  the  negroes,  and  to 
encourage  them  to  steal,  or  to  work  for  them  at  night  and  on 
Sundays,  and  to  pay  them  with  liquor,  and  also  to  constantly 


VIRGINIA.  85 

associate  licentiously  "with  them.  They  seem,  nevertheless,  more 
than  any  other  portion  of  the  community,  to  hate  and  despise 
the  negroes. 

BED-TIME. 

In  the  midst  of  our  conversation,  one  of  the  Hack  girls  had 
come  into  the  room  and  stood  still  with  her  head  dropped 
forward,  staring  at  me  from  under  her  brows,  without  saying  a 
word.  When  she  had  waited,  in  this  way,  perhaps  two  minutes, 
her  master  turned  to  her  and  asked  what  she  wanted. 

"  Miss  Matty  says  Marta  Ann  go  to  bed  now." 

But  Martha  Ann  refused  to  budge ;  after  being  told  once  or 
twice  by  her  father  to  go  with  Eose,  she  came  to  me  and  lifted 
up  her  hands,  I  supposed  to  kiss  me  and  go,  but  when  I  reached 
down,  she  took  hold  of  my  shoulders  and  climbed  up  on  to  my 
knees.  Her  father  seemed  to  take  no  notice  of  this  proceeding, 
but  continued  talking  about  guano ;  Eose  went  to  a  comer  of 
the  fire-place,  dropped  down  upon  the  floor  and  presently  was 
asleep,  leaning  her  head  against  the  Avail.  In  about  half  an 
hour,  the  other  negro  girl  came  to  the  door,  when  Mr.  Newman 
abruptly  called  out,  "girl!  take  that  child  to  bed!"  and  imme- 
diately got  up  himself  and  walked  out.  Eose  roused  herself 
and  lifted  Martha  Ann  out  of  my  arms,  and  carried  her  off 
fast  asleep.  Mr.  Newman  returned  holding  a  small  candle  in 
his  hand,  and,  without  entering  the  room,  stood  at  the  door  and 
said,  "  I'll  show  you  your  bed  if  you  are  ready,  sir."  As  he 
evidently  meant,  "  I  am  ready  to  show  you  to  bed  if  you  will  not 
refuse  to  go,"  I  followed  him  up  stairs. 

Into  a  large  room,  again,  with  six  windows,  with  a  fire-place,  in 
which  a  few  brands  were  smoking,  with  some  wool  spread  thinly 


86  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

upon  the  floor  in  a  corner;  with  a  dozen  small  bundles  of 
tobacco  leaves ;  with  a  lady's  saddle  ;  with  a  deep  feather-bed, 
covered  with  a  bright  patch-work  quilt,  on  a  maple  bedstead,  and 
without  a  single  item  of  any  other  furniture  whatever.  Mr. 
Newman  asked  if  I  wanted  the  candle  to  undress  by,  I  said  yes, 
if  he  pleased,  and  waited  a  moment  for  him  to  set  it  down :  as  he 
did  not  do  so  I  walked  towards  him,  lifting  my  hand  to  take  it. 
"  No — I'll  hold  it,"  said  he,  and  I  then  perceived  that  he  had  no 
candle-stick,  but  held  the  lean  little  dip  in  his  hand:  I 
remembered  also  that  no  candle  had  been  brought  into  the 
"sitting-room,"  and  that  while  we  were  at  supper  only  one  candle 
had  stood  upon  the  table,  which  had  been  immediately  extin- 
guished when  we  rose,  the  room  being  lighted  only  from  the 
fire. 

I  very  quickly  undressed  and  hung  my  clothes  upon  a  bed- 
post :  Mr.  Newman  looked  on  in  silence  until  I  had  got  into  bed, 
when,  with  an  abrupt  "  good-night,  sir,"  he  went  out  and  shut 
the  door. 

SETTLING. 

It  was  not  until  after  I  had  consulted  Sam  the  next  morning, 
that  I  ventured  to  consider  that  my  entertainment  might  be  taken 
as  a  mere  business  transaction,  and  not  as  "genuine  planter's 
hospitality,"  though  this  had  become  rather  a  ridiculous  view  of 
it,  after  a  repetition  of  the  supper,  in  all  respects,  had  been  eaten 
for  breakfast,  with  equal  moroseness  on  the  part  of  my  host  and 
equal  quietness  on  the  part  of  his  kind-looking  little  wife.  I 
was,  nevertheless,  amused  at  the  promptness  with  which  he 
replied  to  my  rather  hesitating  inquiry — what  I  might  pay 
him  for  the  trouble  I  had  given  him — "  I  reckon  a  dollar  and  a 
quarter  will  be  right,  sir." 


VIRGINIA.  87 

THE    "WILDERNESS. 

I  have  described,  perhaps  with  tedious  prolixity,  what  adven- 
tures befell  me,  and  what  scenes  I  passed  through  in  my  first 
day's  random  riding,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  an  idea  of  the  un- 
cultivated and  unimproved — rather,  sadly  worn  and  misused — 
condition  of  some  parts,  and  I  judge,  of  a  very  large  part, 
of  all  Eastern  Virginia,  and  of  the  isolated,  lonely,  and  dis- 
sociable aspect  of  the  dwelling  places  of  a  large  part  of  the 
people. 

Much  the  same  general  characteristics  pervade  the  Slave 
States,  everywhere,  except  in  certain  rich  regions,  or  on  the  banks 
of  some  rivers,  or  in  the  vicinity  of  some  great  routes  of  travel  and 
transportation,  which  have  occasioned  closer  settlement  or  stimu- 
lated public  spirit.  For  hours  and  hours  one  has  to  ride  through 
the  unlimited,  continual,  all-shadowing,  all-embracing  forest,  fol- 
lowing roads,  in  the  making  of  which  no  more  labor  has  been  given 
than  was  necessary  to  remove  the  timber  which  would  obstruct  the 
passage  of  wagons ;  and  even  for  days  and  days  he  may  sometimes 
travel,  and  see  never  two  dwellings  of  mankind  within  sight  of 
each  other ;  only,  at  long  distances,  often  several  miles  asunder, 
these  isolated  plantation  patriarchates.  If  a  traveler  leaves  the 
main  road  to  go  any  distance,  it  is  not  to  be  imagined  how  diffi- 
cult it  is  for  him  to  find  his  way  from  one  house  to  any  other  in 
particular ;  his  only  safety  is  in  the  fact  that,  unless  there  are 
mountains  or  swamps  in  the  way,  he  is  not  likely  to  go  many 
miles  upon  any  wagon  or  horse  track  without  coming  to  some 
white  man's  habitation. 

THE    MEETING-HOUSE. 

The  country  passed  through,  in  the  early  part  of  my  second 


©b  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

day's  ride,  was  very  similar  in  general  characteristics  to  that 
I  have  already  described ;  only  that  a  rather  larger  portion  of  it 
was  cleared,  and  plantations  were  more  frequent.  About  eleven 
o'clock  I  crossed  a  bridge  and  came  to  the  meeting-house 
I  had  been  expecting  to  reach  by  that  hour  the  previous  day. 
It  was  in  the  midst  of  the  woods,  and  the  small  clearing  around 
it  was  still  dotted  with  the  stumps  of  the  trees  out  of  whose 
trunks  it  had  been  built ;  for  it  was  a  log  structure.  In  one 
end  there  was  a  single  square  port,  closed  by  a  sliding  shutter,  in 
the  other  end  were  two  doors,  both  standing  open.  In  front  of 
the  doors,  a  rude  scaffolding  had  been  made  of  poles  and  saplings, 
extending  out  twenty  feet  from  the  wall  of  the  house,  and  this 
had  been  covered  with  boughs  of  trees,  the  leaves  now  wither- 
ed ;  a  few  benches,  made  of  split  trunks  of  trees,  slightly  hewn 
with  the  axe,  were  arranged  under  this  arbor,  as  if  the  religious 
service  was  sometimes  conducted  on  the  outside  in  preference  to 
the  interior  of  the  edifice.  Looking  in,  I  saw  that  a  gallery  or  loft 
extended  from  over  the  doors,  across  about  one-third  the  length 
of  the  house,  access  to  which  was  had  by  a  ladder.  At  the  op- 
posite end  was  a  square,  unpainted  pulpit,  and  on  the  floor  were 
rows  of  rude  benches.  The  house  was  sufficiently  lighted  by 
crevices  between  the  upper  logs. 

A    TOBACCO    PLANTATION. 

Half  an  hour  after  this  I  arrived  at  the  negro-quarters — a  lit- 
tle hamlet  of  ten  or  twelve  small  and  dilapidated  cabins.  Just 
beyond  them  was  a  plain  farm-gate,  at  which  several  negroes 
were  standing  ;  one  of  them,  a  well-made  man,  with  an  intel- 
ligent countenance  and  prompt  manner,  directed  me  how  to  find 
my  way  to  his  owner's  house.    It  was  still  nearly  a  mile  distant; 


VIRGINIA.  89 

and  yet,  until  I  arrived  in  its  immediate  vicinity,  I  saw  no  culti- 
vated field,  and  but  one  clearing.  In  the  edge  of  this  clearing, 
a  number  of  negroes,  male  and  female,  lay  stretched  out  upon  the 
ground  near  a  small  smoking  charcoal  pit.  Their  master  after- 
wards informed  me  that  they  were  burning  charcoal  for  the  planta- 
tion blacksmith,  using  the  time  allowed  them  for  holidays — from 
Christmas  to  New  Year's — to  earn  a  little  money  for  themselves 
in  this  way.  He  paid  them  by  the  bushel  for1  it.  When  I  said 
that  I  supposed  he  allowed  them  to  take  what  wood  they  chose 
for  this  purpose,  he  replied  that  he  had  five  hundred  acres  cov- 
ered with  wood,  which  he  would  be  very  glad  to  have  any  one 
burn,  or  clear  off  in  any  Avay.  Cannot  some  Yankee  contrive  a 
method  of  concentrating  some  of  the  valuable  properties  of  this 
old-field  pine,  so  that  they  may  be  profitably  brought  into  use  in 
more  cultivated  regions?  Charcoal  is  now  brought  to  New 
York  from  Virginia ;  but  when  made  from  pine  it  is  not  very 
valuable,  and  will  only  bear  transportation  from  the  banks  of  the 
navigable  rivers,  whence  it  can  be  shipped,  at  one  movement,  to 
New  York.  Turpentine  does  not  flow  in  sufficient  quantity  from 
this  variety  of  the  pine  to  be  profitably  collected,  and  for  lumber 
it  is  of  very  small  value. 

Mr.  W.'s  house  was  an  old  family  mansion,  which  he  had  him- 
self remodeled  in  the  Grecian  style,  and  furnished  with  a  large 
wooden  portico.  An  oak  forest  had  originally  occupied  the 
ground  where  it  stood ;  but  this  having  been  cleared  and  the 
soil  worn  out  in  cultivation  by  the  previous  proprietors,  pine 
woods  now  surrounded  it  in  every  direction,  a  square  of  a  few 
acres  only  being  kept  clear  immediately  about  it.  A  number  of 
the  old  oaks  still  stood  in  the  rear  of  the  house,  and,  until 
Mr.   W.   commenced— -his  improvements,   there  had  been  some 

X 


90  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

in  its  front.  These,  however,  he  had  cut  away,  as  interfering 
with  the  symmetry  of  his  grounds,  and  in  place  of  them  had 
planted  ailanthus  trees  in  parallel  rows. 

On  three  sides  of  the  outer  part  of  the  cleared  square 
there  was  a  row  of  large  and  comfortable-looking  negro- 
quarters,  stables,  tobacco-houses,  and  other  offices,  built  of 
logs. 

Mr.  W.  was  one  of  the  few  large  planters,  of  his  vicinity, who 
still  made  the  culture  of  tobacco  their  principal  business.  He  said 
there  was  a  general  prejudice  against  tobacco,  in  all  the  tide- 
water region  of  the  State,  because  it  was  through  the  culture  of 
tobacco  that  the  once  fertile  soils  had  been  impoverished ;  but  he 
did  not  believe  that,  at  the  present  value  of  negroes,  their  labor 
could  be  applied  to  the  culture  of  grain,  with  any  profit,  except 
under  peculiarly  favorable  circumstances.  Possibly,  the  use  of 
guano  might  make  wheat  a  paying  crop,  but  he  still  doubted. 
He  had  not  used  it,  himself.  Tobacco  required  fresh  land,  and 
was  rapidly  exhausting,  but  it  returned  more  money,  for  the 
labor  used  upon  it,  than  anything  else ;  enough  more,  in  his 
opinion,  to  pay  for  the  wearing  out  of  the  land.  If  he  was  well- 
paid  for  it,  he  did  not  know  why  he  should  not  wear  out  his  land. 

His  tobacco-fields  Avere  nearly  all  in  a  distant  and  lower  part 
of  his  plantation  ;  land  which  had  been  neglected  before  his  time, 
in  a  great  measure,  because  it  had  been  sometimes  flooded,  and 
was,  much  of  the  year,  too  wet  for  cultivation.  He  was  draining 
and  clearing  it,  and  it  now  brought  good  crops. 

He  had  had  an  Irish  gang  draining  for  him,  by  contract.  He 
thought  a  negro  could  do  twice  as  much  work,  in  a  day,  as  an 
Irishman.  He  had  not  stood  over  them  and  seen  them  at  work, 
but  judged  entirely  from  the  amount  they  accomplished:  he 


VIRGINIA.  91 

thought  a  good  gang  of  negroes  would  have  got  on  twice  as  fast. 
He  was  sure  they  must  have  "trifled"  a  great  deal,  or  they  would 
have  accomplished  more  than  they  had.  He  complained  much, 
also,  of  their  sprees  and  quarrels.  I  asked  why  he  should 
employ  Irishmen,  in  preference  to  doing  the  work  with  his  own 
hands.  "It's  dangerous  work  (unhealthy?),  and  a  negro's 
life  is  too  valuable  to  be  risked  at  it.  If  a  negro  dies,  it's 
a  considerable  loss,  you  know." 

He  afterwards  said  that  his  negroes  never  worked  so  hard 
as  to  tire  themselves — always  were  lively,  and  ready  to  go  off 
on  a  frolic  at  night.  He  did  not  think  they  ever  did  half  a  fail- 
day's  work.  They  could  not  be  made  to  work  hard:  they  never 
would  lay  out  their  strength  freely,  and  it  was  impossible  to 
make  them  do  it. 

This  is  just  what  I  have  thought  when  I  have  seen  slaves 
at  work — they  seem  to  go  through  the  motions  of  labor 
without  putting  strength  into  them.  They  keep  their  powers 
in  reserve  for  their  own  use  at  night,  perhaps. 

Mr.  W.  also  said  that  he  cultivated  only  the  coarser  and 
lower-priced  sorts  of  tobacco,  because  the  finer  sorts  required 
more  pains-taking  and  discretion  than  it  was  possible  to  make 
a  large  gang  of  negroes  use.  "  You  can  make  a  nigger  work," 
he  said,   " but  you  cannot  make  Mm  think" 

Although  Mr.  W.  was  very  wealthy  (or,  at  least,  would  be 
considered  so  anywhere  at  the  North),  and  was  a  gentleman 
of  education,  his  style  of  living  was  very  farmer-like,  and 
thoroughly  Southern.  On  their  plantations,  generally,  the 
Virginia  gentlemen  seem  to  drop  their  full-dress  and  con- 
strained town-habits,  and  to  live  a  free,  rustic,  shooting-jacket 
life.     We  dined  in  a  room  that  extended  out,  rearwardly,  from 


92  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

the  house,  and  which,  in  a  Northern  establishment,  would  have 
been  the  kitchen.  The  cooking  was  done  in  a  detached  log- 
cabin,  and  the  dishes  brought  some  distance,  through  the  open 
air,  by  the  servants.  The  outer  door  was  left  constantly  open, 
though  there  was  a  fire  in  an  enormous  old  fire-place,  large 
enough,  if  it  could  have  been  distributed  sufficiently,  to  have 
lasted  a  New  York  seamstress  the  best  part  of  the  winter. 
By  the  door,  there  was  indiscriminate  admittance  to  negro- 
children  and  fox-hounds,  and,  on  an  average,  there  were  four 
of  these,  grinning  or  licking  their  chops,  on  either  side  of 
of  my  chair,  all  the  time  I  was  at  the  table.  A  stout  woman 
acted  as  head  waitress,  employing  two  handsome  little  mulatto 
boys  as  her  aids  in  communicating  with  the  kitchen,  from  which 
relays  of  hot  corn-bread,  of  an  excellence  quite  new  to  me,  were 
brought  at  frequent  intervals.*  There  was  no  other  bread,  and 
but  one  vegetable  served — sweet  potato,  roasted  in  ashes,  and 
this,  I  thought,  was  the  best  sweet  potato,  also,  that  I  ever  had 
eaten ;  but  there  were  four  preparations  of  swine's  flesh,  besides 
fried  fowls,  fried  eggs,  cold  roast  turkey,  and  opossum,  cooked, 
I  know  not  how,  but  it  somewhat  resembled  baked  sucking-pig. 
The  only  beverages  on  the  table  were  milk  and  whisky. 

I  was  pressed  to  stay  several  days  wnth  Mr.  W.,  and  should 
have  been  glad  to  have  accepted  such  hospitality,  had  not 
another   engagement  prevented.     When  I  was  about  to  leave, 


*  There  is  probably  some  choice  in  the  sort  of  corn  used.  The  best  corn- 
bread  that  I  have  eaten  was  made  simply  by  wetting  coarse  meal  with  pure 
water,  adding  only  a  little  salt,  and  baking  in  the  form  of  a  breakfast-roll.  The 
addition  of  milk,  butter,  or  eggs,  damages  it.  I  speak  now  from  experience — 
having  been,  in  my  second  journey  in  the  South,  often  obliged  to  make  my  own 
bread.  The  only  care  required,  except  not  to  burn  it,  is  to  make  sure,  if  possi- 
ble)— which  it  was  not,  generally,  in  Texas — that  the  corn  is  not  mouldy. 


VIRGINIA  93 

an  old  servant  was  directed  to  get  a  horse,  and  go  with  me, 
as  guide,  to  the  rail-road  station  at  Col.  Gillin's.  He  followed 
behind  me,  and  I  had  great  difficulty  in  inducing  him  to  ride 
near  enough  to  converse  with  me.  I  wished  to  ascertain  from 
him  how  old  the  different  stages  of  the  old-field  forest-growth, 
by  the  side  of  our  road,  might  be ;  but,  for  a  long  time,  he  was, 
or  pretended  to  be,  unable  to  comprehend  my  questions.  When 
he  did  so,  the  most  accurate  information  he  could  give  me 
was,  that  he  reckoned  such  a  field  (in  which  the  pines  were 
now  some  sixty  feet  high)  had  been  planted  with  tobacco  the 
year  his  old  master  bought  him.  He  thought  he  was  about 
twenty  years  old  then,  and  that  now  he  was  forty.  He  had 
every  appearance  of  being  seventy. 

He  frequently  told  me  there  was  no  need  for  him  to  go  any 
further,  and  that  it  was  a  dead,  straight  road  to  the  station, 
without  any  forks.  As  he  appeared  very  eager  to  return,  I  was 
at  length  foolish  enough  to  allow  myself  to  be  prevailed  upon 
to  dispense  with  his  guidance ;  gave  him  a  quarter  of  a  dollar 
for  his  time  that  I  had  employed,  and  went  on  alone.  The 
road,  which  for  a  short  distance  further  was  plain  enough, 
soon  began  to  ramify,  and,  in  half  an  hour,  we  were  stumbling 
along  a  dark  wood-path,  looking  eagerly  for  a  house.  At 
length,  seeing  one  across  a  large  clearing,  we  went  through  a 
long  lane,  opening  gates  and  letting  down  bars,  until  we  met 
two  negroes,  riding  a  mule,  who  were  going  to  the  plantation 
near  the  school-house,  which  we  had  seen  the  day  before. 
Following  them  thither,  we  knew  the  rest  of  the  way  (Jane 
gave  a  bound  and  neighed,  when  we  struck  the  old  road, 
showing  that  she  had  been  lost,  as  well  as  I,  up  to  the  moment). 

It  was  twenty  minutes  after  the  hour  given  in  the  time-table 


94  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

for  the  passage  of  the  train,  •when  I  reached  the  station,  but 
it  had  not  arrived ;  nor  did  it  make  its  appearance  for  a  quarter 
of  an  hour  longer;  so  I  had  plenty  of  time  to  deliver  Tom's 
wife's  message  and  take  leave  of  Jane.  I  am  sorry  to  say  she 
appeared  very  indifferent,  and  seemed  to  think  a  good  deal  more 
of  Tom  than  of  me.  Mr.  W.  had  told  me  that  the  train  would, 
probably,  be  half  an  hour  behind  its  advertised  time,  and  that 
I  had  no  need  to  ride  with  haste,  to  reach  it.  I  asked  Col. 
Gillin  if  it  would  be  safe  to  always  calculate  on  the  train  being 
half  an  hour  late :  he  said  it  would  not ;  for,  although  usually 
that  much  behind  the  time-table,  it  was  sometimes  half  an  hour 
ahead  of  it.  So  those,  who  would  be  safe,  had  commonly  to 
wait  an  hour.  People,  therefore,  who  wished  to  go  not  more 
than  twenty  miles  from  home,  would  find  it  more  convenient, 
and  equally  expeditious,  taking  all  things  into  account,  to  go  in 
their  own  conveyances — there  being  but  few  who  lived  so  near 
the  station  that  they  would  not  have  to  employ  a  horse  and 
servant  to  get  to  it. 


A    FREE-LABOR   FARM. 

, .     I  have  been  visiting  a  farm,  cultivated 

entirely  by  free-labor.  The  proprietor  told  me  that  he  was  first 
led  to  disuse  slave-labor,  not  from  any  economical  considerations, 
but  hecause  he  had  become  convinced  that  there  was  an  essential 
wrong  in  holding  men  in  forced  servitude  with  any  other  purpose 
than  to  benefit  them  alone,  and  because  he  was  not  willing  to  allow 
his  own  children  to  be  educated  as  slave-masters.  His  father  had 
been  a  large  slave-holder,  and  he  felt  very  strongly  the  bad  influ- 
ence it  had  had  on  his  own  character.     He  wished  me  to  be 


VIRGINIA.  95 

satisfied  that  Jefferson  uttered  a  great  truth  when  he  asserted 
that  slavery  was  more  pernicious  to  the  white  race  than  the  "black. 
Although,  therefore,  a  chief  part  of  his  inheritance  had  been  in 
slaves,  he  had  liberated  them  all. 

Most  of  them  had,  by  his  advice,  gone  to  Africa.  These  he  had 
frequently  heard  from.  Except  a  child  that  had  been  drowned, 
they  were,  at  his  last  account,  all  alive,  in  general  good  health, 
and  satisfactorily  prospering.  He  had  lately  received  a  letter 
from  one  of  them,  who  told  him  that  he  was  "  tidying  to  preach 
the  Gospel,"  and  who  had  evidently  greatly  improved,  both 
intellectually  and  morally,  since  he  left  here.  With  regard  to 
those  going  North,  and  the  common  opinion  that  they  encoun- 
tered much  misery,  and  would  be  much  better  off  here,  he  said 
that  it  entirely  depended  on  the  general  character  and  habits  of 
the  individual ;  it  was  true  of  those  who  were  badly  brought  up, 
and  who  had  acquired  indolent  and  vicious  habits,  especially  if 
they  were  drunkards,  but,  if  of  some  intelligence  and  well-trained, 
they  generally  represented  themselves  to  be  successful  and  con- 
tented. 

He  mentioned  two  remarkable  cases,  that  had  come  under  his 
own  observation,  of  this  kind.  One  was  that  of  a  man  who  had 
been  free,  but,  by  some  fraud  and  informality  of  his  papers,  was 
reenslaved.  He  ran  away,  and  afterwards  negotiated,  by  cor- 
respondence, with  his  master,  and  purchased  his  freedom.  This 
man  he  had  accidentally  met,  fifteen  years  afterwards,  in  a  North- 
ern city ;  he  was  engaged  in  profitable  and  increasing  business, 
and  showed  him,  by  his  books,  that  he  was  possessed  of  property 
to  the  amount  of  ten  thousand  dollars.  He  was  living  a  great 
deal  more  comfortably  and  wisely  than  ever  his  old  master  had 
done.     The  other  case  was  that  of  a  colored  woman,  who  had 


96  OJR     SLAVE     STATES.       - 

obtained  her  freedom,  and  who  became  apprehensive  that  she  also 
was  about  to  be  fraudulently  made  a  slave  again.  She  fled  to 
Philadelphia,  where  she  was  nearly  starved,  at  first.  A  little 
girl,  who  heard  her  begging  in  the  streets  to  be  allowed  to  work 
for  bread,  told  her  that  her  mother  was  wanting  some  washing 
done,  and  she  followed  her  home.  The  mother,  not  knowing 
her,  was  afraid  to  trust  her  with  the  articles  to  be  washed.  She 
prayed  so  earnestly  for  the  job,  however — suggesting  that  she 
might  be  locked  into  a  room  until  she  had  completed  ifc — that  it 
was  given  her. 

So  she  commenced  life  in  Philadelphia.  Ten  years  afterwards 
he  had  accidentally  met  her  there ;  she  recognized  him  imme- 
diately, recalled  herself  to  his  recollection,  manifested  the  greatest 
joy  at  seeing  him,  and  asked  him  to  come  to  her  house,  which  he 
found  a  handsome  three-story  building,  furnished  really  with  ele- 
gance ;  and  she  pointed  out  to  him,  from  the  window,  three  houses 
in  the  vicinity  that  she  owned  and  rented.  She  showed  great 
anxiety  to  have  her  children  well  educated,  and  was  employing 
the  best  instructors  for  them  which  she  could  procure  in  Phila- 
delphia. 

This  gentleman,  notwithstanding  his  anti-slavery  sentiments, 
by  no  means  favors  the  running  away  of  slaves,  and  thinks  the 
Abolitionists  have  done  immense  harm  to  the  cause  they  have  at 
heart.  He  wishes  Northerners  would  mind  their  business,  and 
leave  Slavery  alone,  say  but  little  about  it — nothing  in  the 
present  condition  of  affairs  at  the  South — and  never  speak  of  it 
but  in  a  kind  and  calm  manner.  He  would  not  think  it  right  to 
return  a  fugitive  slave ;  but  he  would  never  assist  one  to  escape. 
He  has  several  times  purchased  slaves,  generally  such  as  his 
neighbors  were  obliged  to  sell,  and  who  would  otherwise  have 


VIRGINIA.  97 

been  taken  South.  This  he  had  been  led  to  do  by  the  solicita- 
tion of  some  of  their  relatives.  He  had  retained  them  in  his  pos- 
session until  their  labor  had  in  some  degree  returned  their  cost  to 
him,  and  he  could  afford  to  provide  them  with  the  means  of  going 
to  Africa  or  the  North,  and  a  small  means  of  support  after 
their  arrival.  Having  received  some  suitable  training  in  his  fami- 
ly, they  had,  without  exception,  been  successful,  ( and  had  fre- 
quently sent  him  money  to  purchase  the  freedom  of  relatives  or 
friends  they  had  left  in  slavery. 

He  considered  the  condition  of  slaves  to  have  much  improved 
since  the  Kevolution,  and  very  perceptibly  during  the  last  twenty 
years.  The  original  stock  of  slaves,  the  imported  Africans,  he 
observed,  probably  required  to  be  governed  with  much  greater 
severity,  and  very  little  humanity  was  exercised  or  thought  of 
with  regard  to  them.  The  slaves  of  the  present  day  are  of  a 
higher  character  ;  in  fact,  he  did  not  think  more  than  half  of  them 
were  full-blooded  Africans.  Public  sentiment  condemned  the 
man  who  treated  his  slaves,  with  cruelty.  The  owners  were 
mainly  men  of  some  cultivation,  and  felt  a  family  attachment  to 
their  slaves,  many  of  whom  had  been  the  playmates  of  their  boy- 
hood. Nevertheless,  they  were  frequently  punished  severely, 
under  the  impulse  of  temporary  passion,  often  without  delibera- 
tion, and  on  unfounded  suspicion.  This  was  especially  the 
case  where  they  were  left  to  overseers,  who,  though  sometimes 
men  of  intelligence  and  piety,  were  more  often  coarse,  brutal,  and 
licentious ;  drinking  men,  wholly  unfitted  for  the  responsibility 
imposed  on  them. 

He  had  read  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin;"  mentioned  several  points 
in  which  he  thought  it  wrong — that  Uncle  Tom  was  too  highly 
painted,  for  instance ;  that  such  a  character  could  not  exist  in, 


98  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

or  spring  out  of  Slavery,  and  that  no  gentleman  of  Kentucky 
or  Virginia  would  have  allowed  himself  to  be  in  the  position 
with  a  slave-dealer  in  which  Mr.  Shelby  is  represented — but  he 
acknowledged  that  cases  of  cruelty  and  suffering,  equal  to  any 
described  in  it,  might  be  found.  In  his  own  neighborhood,  some 
time  ago,  a  man  had  been  whipped  to  death  ;  and  he  recollected 
several  that  had  been  maimed  for  life,  by  harsh  and  hasty  pun- 
ishment ;  but  the  whole  community  were  indignant  when  such 
things  occurred,  and  any  man  guilty  of  them  would  be  without 
associates,  except  of  similar  character. 

The  opinions  of  this  gentleman  must  not,  of  course,  be  con- 
sidered as  representative  of  those  of  the  South  in  general,  by  any 
means  ;  but  as  to  facts,  he  is  a  competent,  and,  I  believe,  a  wholly 
candid  and  unprejudiced  witness.  He  is  much  respected,  and  on 
terms  of  friendship  with  all  his  neighbors,  though  they  do  not 
like  his  views  on  this  subject.  He  told  me,  however,  that  one 
of  them,  becoming  convinced  of  their  correctness  some  time  ago, 
freed  his  slaves,  and  moved  to  Ohio.  As  to  "  Uncle  Tom,"  it 
is  generally  criticised  very  severely,  and  its  representations  of 
Slavery  indignantly  denied.  I  observe  that  it  is  not  placarded 
outside  the  booksellers'  stores,  though  the  whole  fleet  of  gun- 
boats that  have  been  launched  after  it  show  their  colors  bravely. 
It  must,  however,  be  a  good  deal  read  here,  as  I  judge  from  the 
frequent  allusions  I  hear  made  to  it. 

With  regard  to  the  value  of  slave-labor,  this  gentleman  is 
confident  tbat,  at  present,  he  has  the  advantage  in  employing 
freemen  instead  of  it.  It  has  not  been  so  until  of  late,  the 
price  of  slaves  having  much  advanced  within  ten  years,  while 
immigration  has  made  free  white  laborers  more  easy  to  be  pro- 
cured. 


VIRGINIA.  99 

He  has  heretofore  had  some  difficulty  in  obtaining  hands  when 
he  needed  them,  and  has  suffered  a  good  deal  from  the  demoral- 
izing influence  of  adjacent  slave-labor,  the  men,  after  a  few 
months'  residence,  inclining  to  follow  the  customs  of  the  slaves 
with  regard  to  the  amount  of  work  they  should  do  in  a  day,  or 
their  careless  mode  of  operation.  He  has  had  white  and  black 
Virginians,  sometimes  Germans,  and  latterly  Irish.  Of  all  these, 
he  has  found  the  Irish  on  the  whole  the  best.  The  poorest  have 
been  the  native  white  Virginians ;  next,  the  free  blacks :  and  though 
there  have  been  exceptions,  he  has  not  generally  paid  these  as 
high  as  one  hundred  dollars  a  year,  and  has  thought  them  less 
worth  their  wages  than  any  he  has  had.  At  present,  he  has  two 
white  natives  and  two  free  colored  men,  but  both  the  latter  were 
brought  up  in  his  family,  and  are  worth  twenty  dollars  a  year 
more  than  the  average.  The  free  black,  he  thinks,  is  generally 
worse  than  the  slave,  and  so  is  the  poor  white  man.  He  also 
employs,  at  present,  four  Irish  hands,  and  is  expecting  two  more 
to  arrive,  who  have  been  recommended  to  him,  and  sent  for  by 
those  he  has.  He  pays  the  Irishmen  $120  a  year,  and  boards 
them.  He  has  had  them  for  $100  ;  but  these  are  all  excellent  men, 
and  well  worth  their  price.  They  are  less  given  to  drinking  than 
any  men  he  has  ever  had ;  and  one  of  them  first  suggested  im- 
provements to  him  in  his  farm,  that  he  is  now  carrying  out  with 
prospects  of  considerable  advantage.  House-maids,  Irish  girls, 
he  pays  $3  and  $6  a  month. 

He  does  not  apprehend  that  in  future  he  shall  have  any  diffi- 
culty in  obtaining  steady  and  reliable  men,  that  will  accomplish 
much  more  work  than  any  slaves.  There  are  some  operations, 
such  as  carting  and  spreading  dung,  and  all  work  with  the  fork, 
spade,  or  shovel,  at  which  his  Irishmen  will  do,  he  thinks,  over 


100  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

fifty  per  cent,  more  in  a  day  than  any  negroes  lie  has  ever  known. 
On  the  whole,  he  is  satisfied  that  at  present  free-labor  is  more 
profitable  than  slave-labor,  though  his  success  is  not  so  evident 
that  he  would  be  willing  to  have  attention  particularly  called  to 
it.  His  farm,  moreover,  is  now  in  a  transition  state  from  one 
system  of  husbandry  to  another,  and  appearances  are  temporarily 
more  unfavorable  on  that  account. 

The  wages  paid  for  slaves,  when  they  are  hired  for  agricultural 
labor,  do  not  differ  at  present,  he  says,  from  those  which  he  pays 
for  his  free  laborers.  In  both  cases  the  hiring  party  boards  the 
laborer,  but,  in  addition  to  money  and  board,  the  slave-employer 
has  to  furnish  clothing,  and  is  subject,  without  redress,  to  any 
losses  which  may  result  from  the  carelessness  or  malevolence  of 
the  slave.  He  also  has  to  lose  his  time  if  he  is  unwell,  or  when 
from  any  cause  he  is  absent  or  unable  to  work. 

The  slave,  if  he  is  indisposed  to  work,  and  especially  if  he  is 
not  treated  well,  or  does  not  like  the  master  who  has  hired  him, 
will  sham  sickness — even  make  himself  sick  or  lame — that  he 
need  not  work.  But  a  more  serious  loss  frequently  arises,  when 
the  slave,  thinking  he  is  worked  too  hard,  or  being  angered  by  pun- 
ishment or  unkind  treatment,  "  getting  the  sulks,"  takes  to  "  the 
swamp,"  and  comes  back  when  he  has  a  mind  to.  Often  this 
will  not  be  till  the  year  is  up  for  which  he  is  engaged,  when  he 
will  return  to  his  owner,  who,  glad  to  find  his  property  safe,  and 
that  it  has  not  died  in  the  swamp,  or  gone  to  Canada,  forgets  to 
punish  him,  and  immediately  sends  him  for  another  year  to  a 
new  master. 

"  But,  meanwhile,  how  does  the  negro  support  life  in  the 
swamp?"  I  asked. 

"Oh,  he  gets   sheep  and   pigs  and   calves,  and  fowls   and 


VIRGINIA.  101 

turkeys  ;  sometimes  they  will  kill  a  small  cow.  We  have  often 
seen  the  fires,  where  they  were  cooking  them,  through  the  woods, 
in  the  swamp  yonder.  If  it  is  cold,  he  will  crawl  under  a  fodder- 
stack,  or  go  into  the  cabins  with  some  of  the  other  negroes,  and 
in  the  same  way,  you  see,  he  can  get  all  the  corn,  or  almost 
anything  else  he  wants. 

"He  steals  them  from  his  master1?" 

"  From  any  one ;  frequently  from  me.  I  have  had  many  a 
sheep  taken  by  them." 

"  It  is  a  common  thing,  then  V 

"  Certainly,  it  is,  very  common,  and  the  loss  is  sometimes 
exceedingly  provoking.  One  of  my  neighbors  here  was  going  to 
build,  and  hired  two  mechanics  for  a  year.  Just  as  he  was  ready 
to  put  his  house  up,  the  two  men,  taking  offense  at  something, 
both  ran  away,  and  did  not  come  back  at  all,  till  their  year  was 
out,  and  then  their  owner  immediately  hired  them  out  again  to 
another  man." 

These  negroes  "  in  the  swamp,"  he  said,  were  often  hunted 
after,  but  it  was  very  difficult  to  find  them,  and,  if  caught,  they 
would  run  again,  and  the  other  negroes  would  hide  and  assist 
them.  Dogs  to  track  them  he  had  never  known  to  be  used  in 
Virginia. 


RECREATION  AND  LUXURY  AMONG  THE  SLAVES. 

Saturday,  Dec.  25.  From  Christmas  to  New-Year's  Day, 
most  of  the  slaves,  except  house  servants,  enjoy  a  freedom  from 
labor;  and  Christmas  is  especially  holiday,  or  Saturnalia,  with 
them.  The  young  ones  began  last  night  firing  crackers,  and  I 
do  not  observe  that  they  are  engaged  in  any  other  amusement 


102  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

to-day ;  the  older  ones  are  generally  getting  drunk,  and  making 
business  for  the  police.  I  have  seen  large  gangs  coming  in  from 
the  country,  and  these  contrast  much  in  then*  general  appearance 
with  the  town  negroes.  The  latter  are  dressed  expensively,  and 
frequently  more  elegantly  than  the  whites.  They  seem  to  he 
spending  money  freely,  and  I  observe  that  they,  and  even  the 
slaves  that  wait  upon  me  at  the  hotel,  often  have  watches,  and 
other  articles  of  value. 

The  slaves  have  a  good  many  ways  of  obtaining  "  spending 
money,"  which,  though  in  law. belonging  to  their  owner,  as  the 
property  of  a  son  under  age  does  to  his  father,  they  are  never 
dispossessed  of,  and  use  for  their  own  gratification,  with  even  less 
restraint  than  a  wholesome  regard  for  their  health  and  moral 
condition  may  be  thought  to  require.  A  Eichmond  paper,  com- 
plaining of  the  liberty  allowed  to  slaves  in  this  respect,  as 
calculated  to  foster  an  insubordinate  spirit,  speaks  of  their 
"  champagne  suppers."  The  police  broke  into  a  gambling  cellar  a 
few  nights  since,  and  found  about  twenty  negroes  at  "  high  play," 
with  all  the  usual  accessories  of  a  first-class  "  Hell."  It  is 
mentioned  that,  among  the  number  taken  to  the  watch-house, 
and  treated  with  lashes  the  next  morning,  there  were  some  who 
had  previously  enjoyed  a  high  reputation  for  piety,  and  others  of 
a  very  elegant  or  foppish  appearance. 

Passing  two  negroes  in  the  street,  I  heard  the  following : 

" Workin'   in  a  tobacco  factory  all  de  year  roun',  an' 

come  Christmas,  only  twenty  dollars!  Workin'  mighty  hard, 
too — up  to  12  o'clock  o'  night  very  often — an'  then  to  hab  a 
nigger  oberseah  !" 

"  A  nigger !" 

"  Yes — dat's  it,  yer  see.     Wouldn't  care  if  'twarnt  for  dat. 


VIRGINIA.  103 

Nothin'  but  a  dirty  nigger !  orderin'  'round,  jes'  as  if  he  was  a 
wite  man !" 

It  is  the  custom  of  tobacco  manufacturers  to  hire  slaves  and  free 
negroes  at  a  certain  rate  of  wages  per  year.  A  task  of  45  lbs. 
per  day  is  given  them  to  work  up,  and  all  that  they  choose  to  do 
more  than  this  they  are  paid  for — payment  being  made  once  a 
fortnight ;  and  invariably  this  over-wages  is  used  by  the  slave 
for  himself,  and  is  usually  spent  in  drinking,  licentiousness  and 
gambling.  The  man  was  grumbling  that  he  had  saved  but  $20 
to  spend  at  the  holidays.  One  of  the  manufacturers  offered  to 
show  me,  by  his  books,  that  nearly  all  gained  by  overwork  $5  a 
month,  many  $20,  and  some  as  much  as  $28. 

.  INGENUITY    OF    THE    NEGRO.    . 

Sitting  with  a  company  of  smokers  last  night,  one  of  them,  to 
show  me  the  manner  in  which  a  slave  of  any  ingenuity  or 
cunning  would  manage  to  avoid  working  for  his  master's  profit, 
narrated  the  following  anecdote.  He  was  executor  of  an  estate  in 
which,  among  other  negroes,  there  was  one  very  smart  man,  who, 
he  knew  perfectly  well,  ought  to  be  earning  for  the  estate  $150  a 
year,  and  who  could  do  it  if  he  chose,  yet  whose  wages  for  a  year, 
being  let  out  by  the  day  or  job,  had  amounted  to  but  $18,  while 
he  had  paid  for  medical  attendance  upon  him  $45.  Having  failed 
in  every  other  way  to  make  him  earn  anything,  he  proposed  to 
him  that  he  should  purchase  his  freedom  and  go  to  Philadelphia, 
where  he  had  a  brother.  He  told  him  if  he  would  earn  a  certain 
sum  ($400  I  believe),  and  pay  it  over  to  the  estate  for  himself, 
he  would  give  him  his  free  papers.  The  man  agreed  to  the 
arrangement,  and  by  his  overwork  in  a  tobacco  factory,  and  some 
assistance  from  his  free  brother,  soon  paid  the  sum  agreed  upon, 


104  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

and  was  sent  to  Philadelphia.  A  few  weeks  afterwards  he  met 
him  in  the  street,  and  asked  him  why  he  had  returned.  "  Oh,  I 
don't  like  dat  Philadelphy,  massa ;  ant  no  chance  for  colored 
folks  dere ;  spec'  if  I'd  been  a  runaway,  de  wite  folks  dere  take 
care  o'  me  ;  but  I  couldn't  git  anythin'  to  do,  so  I  jis  borrow  ten 
dollar  of  my  broder,  and  cum  back  to  old  Virginny." 

"  But  you  know  the  law  forbids  your  return.     I  wonder  that 

you  are  not  afraid  to  be  seen  here ;  I  should  think  Mr. (an 

officer  of  police)  would  take  you  up." 

"  Oh !  I  look  out  for  dat,  Massr,  I  juss  hire  myself  out  to 
Mr. ■  himself,  ha !  ha !     He  tink  I  your  boy." 

And  so  it  proved,  the  officer,  thinking  that  he  was  permitted  to 
hire  himself  out,  and  tempted  by  the  low  wages  at  which  he 
offered  himself,  had  neglected  to  ask  for  his  written  permission, 
and  had  engaged  him  for  a  year.  He  still  lived  with  the  officer, 
and  was  an  active,  healthy,  good  servant  to  him. 

QUALITIES    AS    A    LABORER. 

A  well-informed  capitalist  and  slave-holder  remarked,  that 
negroes  could  not  be  employed  in  cotton  factories.  I  said  that  I 
understood  they  were  so  in  Charleston,  and  some  other  places  at 
the  South. 

"It  may  be  so,  yet"  he  answered,  "but  they  will  have  to  give 
it  up." 

The  reason  was,  he  said,  that  the  negro  could  never  be  trained 
to  exercise  judgment ;  he  cannot  be  made  to  use  his  mind ;  he 
always  depends  on  machinery  doing  its  own  work,  and  cannot  be 
made  to  watch  it.  He  neglects  it  until  something  is  broken  or 
there  is  great  waste.  "  We  have  tried  reward  and  punishments, 
but  it  makes  no   difference.     It's  his  nature   and   you   cannot 


VIRGINIA.  105 

change  it.  All  men  are  indolent  and  have  a  disinclination  to 
labor,  but  this  is  a  great  deal  stronger  in  the  African  race  than  in 
any  other.  In  working  niggers,  we  must  always  calculate  that 
they  will  not  labor  at  all  except  to  avoid  punishment,  and  they 
will  never  do  more  than  just  enough  to  save  themselves  from 
being  punished,  and  no  amount  of  punishment  will  prevent  their 
working  carelessly  and  indifferently.  It  always  seems  on  the 
plantation  as  if  they  took  pains  to  break  all  the  tools  and  spoil 
all  the  cattle  that  they  possibly  can,  even  when  they  know  they'll 
be  directly  punished  for  it." 

As  to  rewards,  he  said,  "  They  only  want  to  support  life,  they 
will  not  work  for  anything  more ;  and  in  this  country  it  would 
be  hard  to  prevent  their  getting  that."  I  thought  this  opinion 
of  the  power  of  rewards  was  not  exactly  confirmed  by  the  narra- 
tive we  had  just  heard,  but  I  said  nothing.  "  If  you  could 
move,"  he  continued,  "  all  the  white  people  from  the  whole  sea- 
board district  of  Virginia  and  give  it  up  to  the  negroes  that  are 
on  it  now,  just  leave  them  to  themselves,  in  ten  years  time 
there  would  not  be  an  acre  of  land  cultivated,  and  nothing  would 
be  produced,  except  what  grew  spontaneously." 

The  Hon.  Willoughby  Newton,  by  the  way,  seems  to  think  that 
if  it  had  not  been  for  the  introduction  of  guano,  a  similar  deso- 
lation would  have  soon  occurred  without  the  Africanization 
of  the  country.     He  is  reported  to  have  said : 

"I  look  upon  the  introduction  of  guano,  and  the  success 
attending  its  application  to  our  barren  lands,  in  the  light 
of  a  special  interposition  of  Divine  Providence,  to  save  the 
northern  neck  of  Virginia  from  reverting  entirely  into  its  former 
state  of  wilderness  and  utter  desolation.     Until  the  discovery 

of  guano — more  valuable  to  us  than  the  mines  of  California — 
5* 


106  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

I  looked  upon  the  possibility  of  renovating  our  soil,  of  ever 
bringing  it  to  a  point  capable  of  producing  remunerating  crops, 
as  utterly  hopeless.  Our  up-lands  were  all  worn  out,  and  our 
bottom-lands  fast  failing,  and  if  it  had  not  been  for  guano, 
to  revive  our  last  hope,  a  few  years  more  and  the  whole  country 
must  have  been  deserted  by  all  who  desired  to  increase  their  own 
wealth,  or  advance  the  cause  of  civilization  by  a  proper  culti- 
vation of  the  earth." 

IMPROVEMENT  OP  THE  NEGRO  IN  SLAVERY. 

"But  are  they  not  improving?"  said  I;  "that  is  a  point 
in  which  I  am  much  interested,  and  I  should  be  glad  to  know 
what  is  your  observation?  Have  they  not,  as  a  race,  improved 
during  the  last  hundred  years,  do  you  not  think1?" 

"  Oh,  yes  indeed,  very  greatly.  During  my  time — I  can 
remember  how  they  were  forty  years  ago — they  have  improved 
two  thousand  per  cent.  /  Don't  you  think  so  V  he  asked  another 
gentleman? 

"Yes;  certainly." 

"  And  you  may  find  them  now,  on  the  isolated  old  plantations 
in  the  back  country,  just  as  I  recollect  them  when  I  was  a  boy, 
stupid  and  moping,  and  with  no  more  intelligence  than  when 
they  first  came  from  Africa.  But  all  about  where  the  country  is 
much  settled  their  condition  is  vastly  ameliorated.  They  are 
treated  much  better,  they  are  fed  better,  and  they  have  much 
greater  educational  privileges." 

EDUCATIONAL    PRIVILEGES. 

"  Educational  privileges?"  I  asked,  in  surprise. 

"  T  mean  by  preaching  and  religious  instruction.     They  have 


VIRGINIA.  107 

the  Bible  read  to  them  a  great  deal,  and  there  is  preach- 
ing for  them  all  over  the  country.  They  have  preachers 
of  their  own;  right  smart  ones  they  are,  too,  some  of 
them." 

"  Do  they  V  said  I.  "  I  thought  that  was  not  allowed 
by  law." 

"  Well,  it  is  not — that  is,  they  are  not  allowed  to  have  meet- 
ings without  some  white  man  is  present.  They  must  not  preach 
unless  a  white  man  hears  what  they  say.  However,  they  do. 
On  my  plantation,  they  always  have  a  meeting  on  Sundays, 
and  I  have  sometimes,  when  I  have  been  there,  told  my 
overseer, — 'You  must  go  up  there  to  the  meeting,  you 
know  the  law  requires  it;'  and  he  would  start  as  if  he  was 
going,  but  would  just  look  in  and  go  by;  he  wasn't  going  to 
wait  for  them." 

A    DISTINGUISHED   DIVINE. 

He  then  spoke  of  a  minister,  whom  he  owned,  and  described 
him  as  a  very  intelligent  man.  He  knew  almost  the  whole 
of  the  Bible  by  heart.  He  was  a  fine-looking  man — a  fine  head 
and  a  very  large  frame.  He  had  been  a  sailor,  and  had  been  in 
New  Orleans  and  New  York,  and  many  foreign  ports.  "  He 
could  have  left  me  at  any  time  for  twenty  years,  if  he  had 
wished  to,"  he  said.  "I  asked  him  once  how  he  would  like 
to  live  in  New  York  ?  "  Oh,  he  did  not  like  New  York  at  all ! 
niggers  were  not  treated  well  there — there  was  more  distinction 
made  between  them  and  white  folks  than  there  was  here.  '  Oh, 
dey  ain't  no  place  in  de  worl  like  Ole  Virginny  for  niggers, 
massa,'  says  he." 

Another  gentleman  gave  similar  testimony. 


108  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

HOW    THEY   ARE   FED. 

I  said  I  supposed  that  they  -were  much  better  off,  more 
improved  intellectually,  and  more  kindly  treated  in  Virginia 
than  further  South.  He  said  I  was  mistaken  in  both  respects — 
that  in  Louisiana,  especially,  they  were  more  intelligent,  be- 
cause the  amalgamation  of  the  races  was  much  greater,  and  they 
were  treated  with  more  familiarity  by  the  whites;  besides 
which,  the  laws  of  Louisiana  were  much  more  favorable  to  them. 
For  instance,  they  required  the  planter  to  give  slaves  200 
pounds  of  pork  a  year :  and  he  gave  a  very  apt  anecdote, 
showing  the  effect  of  this  law,  but  which,  at  the  same  time, 
made  it  evident  that  a  Virginian  may  be  accustomed  to  neglect 
providing  sufficient  food  for  his  force,  and  that  they  sometimes 
suffer  greatly  for  want  of  it.  I  was  assured,  however,  that 
this  was  very  rare — that,  generally,  the  slaves  were  well  pro- 
vided for — always  allowed  a  sufficient  quantity  of  meal,  and, 
generally,  of  pork — were  permitted  to  raise  pigs  and  poultry, 
and  in  summer  could  always  grow  as  many  vegetables  as  they 
wanted.  It  was  observed,  however,  that  they  frequently 
neglect  to  provide  for  themselves  in  this  way,  and  live  mainly 
on  meal  and  bacon.  If  a  man  does  not  provide  well  for  his 
slaves,  it  soon  becomes  known,  he  gets  the  name  of  a  "  nigger 
killer,"  and  loses  the  respect  of  the  community. 

The  general  allowance  of  food  was  thought  to  be  a  peck  and 
a  half  of  meal,  and  three  pounds  of  bacon  a  week.  This,  it  was 
observed,  is  as  much  meal  as  they  can  eat,  but  they  would  be 
glad  to  have  more  bacon ;  sometimes  they  receive  four  pounds, 
but  it  is  oftener  that  they  get  less  than  three.  It  is  distributed 
to  them  on  Saturday  nights ;  or,  on  the  better  managed  planta- 
tions, sometimes,  on  Wednesday,  to  prevent  their  using  it  ex- 


VIRGINIA.  109 

travagantly,  or  selling  it  for  whisky  on  Sunday.  This  distribu- 
tion is  called  the  "  drawing,"  and  is  made  by  the  overseer  to  all 
the  heads  of  families  or  single  negroes.  Except  on  the  smallest 
plantations,  where  the  cooking  is  done  in  the  house  of  the 
proprietor,  there  is  a  cook-house,  furnished  with  a  large  cop- 
per for  boiling,  and  an  oven.  Every  night  the  negroes  take 
their  "mess,"  for  the  next  clay's  breakfast  and  dinner,  to  the 
cook,  to  be  prepared  for  the  next  clay.  Custom  varies  as  to 
the  time  it  is  served  out  to  them ;  sometimes  at  morning  and 
noon,  at  other  times  at  noon  and  night.  Each  negro  marks 
his  meat  by  cuts,  so  that  he  shall  know  it  from  the  rest,  and 
they  observe  each  other's  rights  with  regard  to  this,  punctili- 
ously. 

After  breakfast  has  been  eaten  early  in  the  cabins,  at  sunrise 
or  a  little  before  in  winter,  and  perhaps  a  little  later  in  summer, 
they  go  to  the  field.  At  noon  dinner  is  brought  to  them,  and, 
unless  the  work  presses,  they  are  allowed  two  hours'  rest.  Very 
punctually  at  sunset  they  stop  work  and  are  at  liberty,  except 
that  a  squad  is  detached  once  a  week  for  shelling  corn,  to  go  to 
the  mill  for  the  next  week's  drawing  of  meal.  Thus  they  work 
in  the  field  about  eleven  hours  a  day  on  an  average.  Returning 
to  the  cabins,  wood  "  ought  to  have  been"  carted  for  them ;  but 
if  it  has  not  been,  they  then  go  to  the  woods  and  "  tote"  it  home 
for  themselves.  They  then  make  a  fire — a  big,  blazing  fire  at 
this  season,  for  the  supply  of  fuel  is  unlimited — and  cook  their 
own  supper,  which  will  be  a  bit  of  bacon  fried,  often  with  eggs, 
corn-bread  baked  in  the  spider  after  the  bacon,  to  absorb  the  fat, 
and  perhaps  some  sweet  potatoes  roasted  in  the  ashes.  Imme- 
diately after  supper  they  go  to  sleep,  often  lying  on  the  floor  or 
a  bench  in  preference  to  a  bed.     About  two  o'clock  they  very 


110  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

generally  rouse  up  and  cook  and  eat,  or  eat  cold,  what  they  call 
their  "  mornin'  bit ;"  then  sleep  again  till  breakfast. 

I  think  the  slaves  generally  (no  one  denies  that  there  are 
j  exceptions)  have  plenty  to  eat ;  probably  are  fed  better  than 
j  the  proletarian  class  of  any  other  part  of  the  world.  I  think 
that  they  generally  save  from  their  ration  of  meal.  My  in- 
formant said  that  commonly  as  much  as  five  bushels  of  meal  was 
sent  to  town  by  his  hands  every  week,  to  be  sold  for  them. 
Upon  inquiry,  he  almost  always  found  that  it  belonged  to 
only  two  or  three  individuals,  who  had  traded  for  it  with  the 
rest;  he  added,  that  too  often  the  exchange  was  for  whisky, 
which,  against  his  rules,  they  obtained  of  some  rascally  white 
people  in  the  neighborhood,  and  kept  concealed.  They  were  very 
fond  of  whisky,  and  sometimes  much  injured  themselves  with 
it. 

To  show  me  how  well  they  were  supplied  witb  eggs,  he  said  tbat 
once  a  vessel  came  to  anchor,  becalmed,  off  his  place,  and  the  cap- 
tain came  to  him  and  asked  leave  to  purchase  some  eggs  of  his 
people.  He  gave  him  permission,  and  called  the  cook  to  collect 
them  for  him.  The  cook  asked  how  many  she  should  bring. 
"  Oh,  all  you  can  get,"  he  answered — and  she  returned  after 
a  time,  with  several  boys  assisting  her,  bringing  nearly  two 
bushels,  all  the  property  of  the  slaves,  and  which  they  were 
willing  to  sell  at  four  cents  a  dozen. 

One  of  the  smokers  explained  to  me  that  it  is  very  bad  economy, 
not  to  allow  an  abundant  supply  of  food  to  "a  man's  force." 
The  negroes  are  fond  of  good  living,  and,  if  not  well  provided 
for,  know  how  to  provide  for  themselves.  It  is,  also,  but 
simple  policy  to  have  them  well  lodged  and  clothed.  If  they 
do  not  have  comfortable  cabins  and  sufficient  clothing,  they 


VIRGINIA.  Ill 

will  take  cold,  and  be  laid  up.     He  lost  a  very  valuable  negro, 
once,  from  having  neglected  to  provide  him  with  shoes. 

LODGINGS. 

,  The  houses  of  the  slaves  are  usually  log-cabins,  of  various 
degrees  of  comfort  and  commodiousness.  At  one  end  there  is 
a '  great  open  fire-place,  which  is  exterior  to  the  wall  of  the 
house,  being  made  of  clay  in  an  inclosure,  about  eight  feet 
square  and  high,  of  logs.  The  chimney  is  sometimes  of  brick, 
but  more  commonly  of  lath  or  split  sticks,  laid  up  like  log-work 
and  plastered  with  mud.  They  enjoy  great  roaring  fires,  and, 
as  the  common  fuel  is  pitch  pine,  the  cabin,  at  night  when  the 
door  is  open,  seen  from  a  distance,  appears  like  a  fierce  furnace. 
The  chimneys  often  catch  fire,  and  the  cabin  is  destroyed.  Very 
little  precaution  can  be  taken  against  this  danger.*  Several 
cabins  are  placed  near  together,  and  they  are  called  "  the 
quarters."  On  a  plantation  of  moderate  size  there  will  be  but 
one  "  quarters."  The  situation  chosen  for  it  has  reference  to 
convenience  of  obtaining  water  from  springs  and  fuel  from  the 
woods.  On  some  of  the  James  Eiver  plantations  there  are 
larger  houses,  boarded  and  made  ornamental.  In  these,  eight 
families,    each    having   a    distinct    sleeping-room   and    lock-up 


*  "An  Ingenious  Negro. — In  Lafayette,  Miss.,  a  few  days  ago,  a  negro, 
who,  with  his  wife  and  three  children,  occupied  a  hut  upon  the  plantation  of 
Col.  Peques,  was  very  much  annoyed  by  fleas.  Believing  that  they  congre- 
gated in  great  numbers  beneath  the  house,  he  resolved  to  destroy  them  by  fire ; 
and  accordingly,  one  night  when  his  family  were  asleep,  he  raised  a  plank  in 
the  floor  of  the  cabin,  and,  procuring  an  armful  of  shucks,  scattered  them  on 
the  ground  beneath,  and  lighted  them.  The  consequence  was,  that  the  cabin 
was  consumed,  and  the  whole  family,  with  the  exception  of  the  man  who 
lighted  the  fire,  was  burned  to  death." — Journal  of  Commerce. 


112  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

closets,  and  every  two  having  a  common  kitchen  or  living-room, 
are  accommodated. 

CLOTHING. 

As  to  the  clothing  of  the  slaves  on  the  plantations,  they  are 
said  to  be  usually  furnished  by  their  owners  or  masters,  every 
year,  each  with  a  coat  and  trousers,  of  a  coarse  woolen  or 
woolen  and  cotton  stuff  (mostly  made,  especially  for  this  purpose, 
in  Providence,  E.  I.),  for  Winter,  trousers  of  cotton  osnaburghs 
for  Summer,  sometimes  with  a  jacket  also  of  the  same ;  two 
pairs  of  strong  shoes,  or  one  pair  of  strong  boots  and  one  of 
lighter  shoes  for  harvest ;  three  shirts ;  one  blanket,  and  one 
felt  hat. 

The  women  have  two  dresses  of  striped  cotton,  three 
shifts,  two  pairs  of  shoes,  etc.  The  women  lying-in  are  kept  at 
knitting  short,  sacks,  from  cotton  which,  in  Southern  Virginia, 
is  usually  raised,  for  this  purpose,  on  the  farm,  and  these  are 
also  given  to  the  negroes.  They  also  purchase  clothing  for 
themselves,  and,  I  notice  especially,  are  well  supplied  with  hand- 
kerchiefs which  the  men  frequently,  and  the  women  nearly  al- 
ways, wear  on  their  heads.  On  Sundays  and  holidays  they 
usually  look  very  smart,  but  when  at  work,  very  ragged 
and  slovenly. 

At  the  conclusion  of  our  bar-room  session,  some  time  after 
midnight,  as  we  were  retiring  to  our  rooms,  our  pr ogress 
up  stairs  and  along  the  corridors  was  several  times  impeded,  by 
negroes  lying  fast  asleep,  in  their  usual  clothes  only,  upon  the 
floor.  I  asked  why  they  were  not  abed,  and  was  answered  by 
a  gentleman,  that  negroes  never  wanted  to  go  to  bed;  they 
always  preferred  to  sleep  upon  the  floor. 


VIRGINIA.  113 

FRATERNITY. 

As  I  was  walking  in  the  outskirts  of  the  town  this  morning, 
I  saw  squads  of  negro  and  white  boys  together,  pitching  pennies 
and  firing  crackers  in  complete  fraternization.  The  white  boys 
manifested  no  superiority,  or  assumption  of  it,  over  the  dark 
ones. 

An  old,  palsied  negro-woman,  very  thinly  and  very  raggedly 
clad,  met  me  and  spoke  to  me.  I  could  not,  from  the  trembling 
incoherency  of  her  voice,  understand  what  she  said,  but  she  was 
evidently  begging,  and  I  never  saw  a  more  pitiable  object  of 
charity  at  the  North.  She  was,  perhaps,  a  free  person,  with  no 
master  and  no  system  to  provide  for  her. 

I  saw,  for  the  first  time  in  my  life,  two  or  three  young  white 
women  smoking  tobacco  in  clay  pipes.  From  their  manner  it 
was  evidently  a  well-formed  habit,  and  one  which  they  did 
not  suspect  there  was  occasion  for  them  to  practice  clandestinely, 
or  be  ashamed  of. 

RELIGIOUS    CONDITION. 

With  regard  to  the  moral  and  religious  condition  of  the  slaves, 
I  cannot,  either  from  what  I  observe,  or  from  what  is  told  me, 
consider  it  in  any  way  gratifying.  They  are  forbidden  by 
law  to  meet  together  for  worship,  or  for  the  purpose  of  mutual 
improvement.  In  the  cities,  there  are  churches  especially  for 
them,  in  which  the  exercises  are  conducted  by  white  clergymen. 
In  the  country,  there  is  usually  a  service,  after  that. for  the  whites 
especially,  in  all  the  churches,  which,  by  the  way,  are  not  very 
thickly  scattered.  In  one  parish,  about  twenty  miles  from  Eich- 
mond,  I  was  told  that  the  colored  congregation  in  the  afternoon 
is  much  smaller  than  that  of  the  whites  in  the  morning ;  and  it 


114  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

was  thought  not  more  than  one-fifth  of  the  negroes  living  within 
a  convenient  distance  were  in  the  habit  of  attending  it ;  and  of 
these  many  came  late,  and  many  more  slept  through  the  greater 
part  of  the  service. 

A  goodly  proportion  of  them,  I  am  told,  "profess  religion," 
and  are  received  into  the  fellowship  of  the  churches  ;  but  it  is 
evident,  of  the  greater  part  even  of  these,  that  their  idea  of  reli- 
gion, and  the  standard  of  morality  which  they  deem  consistent 
with  a  "profession"  of  it,  is  very  degraded.  That  they  are  sub- 
ject to  intense  excitements,  often  really  maniacal,  which  they 
consider  to  be  religious,  is  true ;  but  as  these  are  described,  I 
cannot  see  that  they  indicate  anything  but  a  miserable  system 
of  superstition,  the  more  painful  that  it  employs  some  forms  and 
words  ordinarily  connected  with  true  Christianity. 

A  Virginia  correspondent  of  the  iV.  Y.  Times,  writing  upon  the 
general  religious  condition  of  the  State,  and  of  the  comparative 
strength  and  usefulness  of  the  different  churches,  says : 

"  The  Baptists  also  number  (in  Eastern  Virginia)  44,000  colored 
members.  This  makes  a  great  difference.  Negroes  join  the  church 
— perhaps  in  a  great  majority  of  cases — with  no  ideas  of  religion.  I 
have  but  little  confidence  in  their  religious  professions.  Many  of 
them  I  hope  are  very  pious  ;  but  many  of  them  are  great  scoundrels — 
perhaps  the  great  majority  of  them — regardless  of  their  church  pro- 
fession as  a  rule  of  conduct.  They  are  often  baptized  in  great 
numbers,  and  the  Baptist  Church  (so  exemplary  in  so  much)  is  to 
blame,  I  fear,  in  the  ready  admission  it  gives  to  the  negroes. 

"  The  Baptist  Church  generally  gets  the  negroes — where  there  are 
no  Baptists,  the  Methodist.  Immersion  strikes  their  fancy.  It  is  a 
palpable,  overt  act,  that  their  imagination  can  take  hold  of.  The 
ceremony  mystically  impresses  them,  as  the  ceremonies  of  Roman- 
ism affect  the  devotees  of  that  connection.  They  come  up  out  of 
the  water,  and  believe  they  see  '  the  Lord.'  In  their  religion, 
negroes  are   excessively  superstitious.      They  have   all   sorts  of 


VIRGINIA  115 

'experiences,'  and  enjoy  the  most  wonderful  revelations.  Visions 
of  the  supernatural  are  of  nightly  occurrence,  and  the  most  absurd 
circumstances  are  invested  with  some  marvelous  significance.  I 
have  heard  that  the  great  ordeal,  in  their  estimation,  a  *  seeker ' 
had  to  pass,  was  being  held  over  the  infernal  flames  by  a  thread  or 
a  hair.  If  the  thread  does  not  break,  the  suspendee  is  '  in  the 
Lord.' 

"It  is  proper,  therefore,  I  think,  to  consider  this  circumstance,  in 
estimating  the  strength  of  a  Church,  whose  communicants  embrace 
such  a  number  of  negroes.  Of  the  Methodists,  in  Eastern  Virginia, 
some  six  or  seven  thousand  are  colored." 

This  condition  of  the  slaves  is  not  necessarily  a  reproach  to 
those  whose  duty  it  more  particularly  is  to  instruct  and  preach 
the  true  Gospel  to  them.  It  is,  in  a  great  degree,  a  necessary 
result  of  the  circumstances  of  their  existence.  The  possession 
of  arbitrary  power  has  always,  the  world  over,  tended  irresistibly 
to  destroy  humane  sensibility,  magnanimity,  and  truth.  Look 
at  the  sovereigns  of  Europe  in  our  day.  There  is  not  one, 
having  sovereign  power,  that  would  not,  over  and  over  again,  for 
acts  of  which  he  is  notoriously  and  undeniably  guilty,  under  our 
laws,  be  confined  with  the  most  depraved  of  criminals.  It  is,  I 
have  no  doubt,  utterly  impossible,  except  as  a  camel  shall  enter 
the  eye  of  a  needle,  for  a  man  to  have  the  will  of  others  habitually 
under  his  control,  without  its  impairing  his  sense  of  justice,  his 
power  of  sympathy,  his  respect  for  manhood,  and  his  worshipful 
love  of  the  Infinite  Father. 

But  it  is  much  more  evident  that  involuntary  subjection 
directly  tends  to  turpitude  and  demoralization.  True,  it  may 
tend  also  to  the  encouragement  of  some  beautiful  traits,  to 
meekness,  humility,  and  a  kind  of  generosity  and  unselfishness. 
But  where  has  it  not  ever  been  accompanied  by  the  loss  of  the 
nobler  virtues  of  manhood,  especially  of  the  noblest,  the  most 


116  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

essential  of  all,  that  without  which  all  others  avail  nothing  for 
good :  Truth.  What  is  the  matter  with  the  Irish  %  No  one 
can  rely  on  them — they  cannot  rely  on  one  another.  Though 
sensitive  to  duty,  and  in  their  way  conscientious,  they  absolutely 
are  not  able  to  comprehend  a  rule,  a  law ;  and  that  a  man  can 
be  fixed  by  his  promise  they  have  never  thought.  A  promise 
with  them  signifies  merely  an  expressed  intention.  Irishmen  that 
have  long  associated  with  us,  we  can  depend  on,  for  we  have 
their  confidence ;  but  to  a  stranger  still,  their  word  is  not  worth 
a  farthing.  They  are  inveterate  falsifiers,  on  the  general  prin- 
ciple that  no  man  can  want  information  of  them  but  for  his  own 
good,  and  that  good  can  only  exist  to  their  injury.  What  is  the 
cause  of  this  ?  their  religion  ? — that  to  which  it  is  attributed  in 
their  religion  is  the  effect  of  it,  more  than  the  cause.  It  is  the 
subjection  of  generations  of  this  people  to  the  will  of  landlords, 
corrupted  to  fiendish  insensibility  by  the  long  continued  posses- 
sion of  nearly  arbitrary  power.  The  capacity  of  mind  for  truth 
and  reliance  has  been  all  but  lost,  by  generations  of  unjust  sub- 
jection. 

It  is  the  same — only  in  some  respects  better,  and  some  far 
worse — even  already,  with  the  African  slave  of  the  South. 
Every  Virginian  acknowledges  it.  Eeligion,  to  call  that  by  the 
name  which  they  do,  has  become  subject  to  it.  "  They  will  lie 
in  their  very  prayers  to  God." 

I  find  illustrations  of  the  trouble  that  this  vice  occasions 
on  every  hand  here.  I  just  heard  this,  for  instance,  from  a  lady. 
A  house-maid,  who  had  the  reputation  of  being  especially 
devout,  was  suspected  by  her  mistress  of  having  stolen  from  her 
bureau  several  trinkets.  She  was  charged  with  the  theft,  and 
vociferously  denied  it.     She  was  watched,  and  the  articles  dis- 


VIRGINIA.  117 

covered  openly  displayed  on  her  person  as  she  went  to  church. 
She  still,  on  her  return,  denied  having  them — was  searched,  and 
they  were  found  in  her  pockets.  When  reproached  by  her 
mistress,  and  lectured  on  the  wickedness  of  lying  and  stealing, 
she  replied  with  the  confident  air  of  knowing  the  ground  she 
stood  upon,  "  Law,  mam,  don't  say  I's  wicked ;  ole  Aunt  Ann 
says  it  allers  right  for  us  poor  colored  people  to  'popiate  what- 
ever of  de  wite  folk's  blessins  de  Lord  puts  in  our  way."  Old 
Aunt  Ann  was  a  sort  of  mother  in  the  colored  Israel  of  the 
town. 

It  is  told  me  as  a  singular  fact,  that  everywhere  on  the  planta- 
tions, the  agrarian  notion  has  become  a  fixed  point  of  the  negro 
system  of  ethics  :  that  the  result  of  labor  belongs  of  right  to  the 
laborer,  and  on  this  ground,  even  the  religious  feel  justified  in 
using  "Massa's"  property  for  their  own  temporal  benefit.  This 
they  term  "  taking,"  and  it  is  never  admitted  to  be  a  reproach  to 
a  man  among  them  that  he  is  charged  with  it,  though  "  steal- 
ing," or  taking  from  another  than  their  master,  and  particularly 
from  one  another,  is  so.  They  almost  universally  pilfer  from  the 
household  stores  when  they  have  a  safe  opportunity.  Thieving, 
by  the  way,  is  not  a  national  vice  of  the  Irish,  because  the 
opportunities  and  temptations  for  it  have  been  too  small  to  have 
bred  the  habit. 

Jefferson  says  of  the  slaves : 

"  Whether  further  observation  will  or  will  not  verify  the  conjec- 
ture, that  nature  has  been  less  bountiful  to  them  in  the  endowments 
of  the  head,  I  believe  that  in  those  of  the  heart  she  will  have  done 
them  justice.  That  disposition  to  theft,  with  which  they  have  been 
branded,  must  be  ascribed  to  their  situation,  and  not  to  any  depra- 
vity of  the  moral  sense.  The  man  in  whose  favor  no  laws  of  pro- 
perty exist,  probably  feols  himself  less  bound  to  respect  those  made 


118  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

in  favor  of  others.  When  arguing  for  ourselves,  we  lay  it  down  as 
fundamental,  that  laws,  to  be  just,  must  give  a  reciprocation  of  right ; 
that  without  this,  they  are  mere  arbitrary  rules,  founded  in  force, 
and  not  in  conscience,  and  it  is  a  problem  which  I  give  to  the  master 
to  solve,  whether  the  religious  precepts  against  the  violation  of  pro- 
perty were  not  framed  for  him  as  well  as  his  slave  ?  and  whether  the 
slave  may  not  as  justifiably  take  a  little  from  one  who  has  taken  all 
from  him,  as  he  may  slay  one  who  would  slay  him  ?  That  a  change 
of  the  relations  in  which  a  man  is  placed  should  change  his  ideas  of 
moral  right  and  wrong,  is  neither  new,  nor  peculiar  to  the  color  of 
the  blacks.     Homer  tells  us  it  was  so,  2,600  years  ago  : 

'• '  Jove*  fixed  it  certain,  that  whatever  day 

Makes  man  a  slave,  takes  half  his  worth  away.'  " 

The  following  is  a  specimen  of  the  most  careful  kind  of 
preaching,  ordinarily  addressed  by  the  white  clergy  to  the  black 
sheep  of  their  flocks.  It  is  by  Bishop  Meade,  of  the  Church 
of  England  in  Virginia,  and  is  copied  from  a  published  volume 
of  sermons,  recommended  by  him  to  masters  and  mistresses  of 
his  diocese,  for  use  in  their  households. 

"  And  think  within  yourselves  what  a  terrible  thing  it  would  be, 
after  all  your  labors  and  sufferings  in  this  life,  to  be  turned  into  hell 
in  the  next  life,  and,  after  wearing  out  your  bodies  in  service  here, 
to  go  into  a  far  worse  slavery  when  this  is  over,  and  your  poor  souls 
be  delivered  over  into  the  possession  of  the  devil,  to  become  his 
slaves  forever  in  hell,  without  any  hope  of  ever  getting  free  from 
it !  If,  therefore,  you  would  be  God's  freemen  in  heaven,  you  must 
strive  to  be  good,  and  serve  him  here  on  earth.  Your  bodies,  you 
know,  are  not  your  own ;  they  are  at  the  disposal  of  those  you  belong 
to ;  but  your  precious  souls  are  still  your  own,  which  nothing  can 
take  from  you,  if  it  be  not  your  own  fault.  Consider  well,  then, 
that,  if  you  lose  your  souls  by  leading  idle,  wicked  fives  here,  you 
have  got  nothing  by  it  in  this  world,  and  you  have  lost  your  all  in 
the  next.  For  your  idleness  and  wickedness  are  generally  found 
out,  and  your  bodies  suffer  for  it  here ;  and  what  is  far  worse,  if 
you  do  not  repent  and  amend,  your  unhappy  souls  will  suffer  for  it 
hereafter. 


VIRGINIA.  119 

"Having  thus  shown  you  the  chief  duties  you  owe  to  your  great 
Master  in  heaven,  I  now  come  to  lay  before  you  the  duties  you  owe 
to  your  masters  and  mistresses  here  upon  earth.  And  for  this  you 
have  one  general  rule,  that  you  ought  always  to  carry  in  your  minds  ; 
and  that  is  to  do  all  service  for  them  as  if  you  did  it  for  God  himself. 

"  Poor  creatures  !  jou.  little  consider,  when  you  are  idle  and  neg- 
lectful of  your  masters*  business,  when  you  steal,  and  waste,  and 
hurt  any  of  their  substance,  when  you  are  saucy  and  impudent,  when 
you  are  telling  them  lies  and  deceiving  them,  or  when  you  prove 
stubborn  and  sullen,  and  will  not  do  the  work  you  are  set  about 
without  stripes  and  vexation, — you  do  not  consider,  I  say,  that  what 
faults  you  are  guilty  of  towards  your  masters  and  mistresses  are 
faults  done  against  God  himself,  who  hath  set  your  masters  and 
mistresses  oyer  you  in  his  own  stead,  and  expects  that  you  would 
do  for  them  just  as  you  would  do  for  him.  And  pray  do  not  think 
that  I  want  to  deceive  you  when  I  tell  you  that  your  masters  and 
mistresses  are  God's  overseers,  and  that,  if  you  are  faulty  towards 
them,  God  himself  will  punish  you  severely  for  it  in  the  next  world, 
unless  you  repent  of  it,  and  strive  to  make  amends  by  your  faith- 
fulness and  diligence  for  the  time  to  come ;  for  God  himself  hath 
declared  the  same. 

"And  in  the  first  place,  you  are  to  be  obedient  and  subject  to 
your  masters  in  all  things.  *  *  *  And  Christian  ministers  are 
commanded  to  '  exhort  servants  to  be  obedient  unto  their  own 
masters,  and  to  please  them  well  in  all  things,  not  answering  them 
again,  or  gainsaying.'  *  *  *  You  are  to  be  faithful  and  honest 
to  your  masters  and  mistresses,  not  purloining  or  wasting  their  goods 
or  substance,  but  showing  all  good  fidelity  in  all  things.  *  *  * 
Do  not  your  masters,  under  God,  provide  for  you  ?  And  how  shall 
they  be  able  to  do  this,  to  feed  and  to  clothe  you,  unless  you  take 
honest  care  of  everything  that  belongs  to  them  ?  Remember  that 
God  requires  this  of  you ;  and  if  you  are  not  afraid  of  suffering  for 
it  here,  you  cannot  escape  the  vengeance  of  Almighty  God,  who  will 
judge  between  you  and  your  masters,  and  make  you  pay  severely, 
in  the  next  world,  for  all  the  injustice  you  do  them  here.  And 
though  you  could  manage  so  cunningly  as  to  escape  the  eyes  and 
hands  of  man,  yet  think  what  a  dreadful  thing  it  is  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  the  living  God,  who  is  able  to  cast  both  soul  and  body  into 
hell." 


120  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

That  wicked  historian,  Volney,  "shows  up"  this  sort  of 
preaching,  in  the  following  suppositious  debate,  which,  no  doubt, 
has  often  been  realized  in  the  minds  of  the  slaves : 

"  Then  the  Spiritual  Governors  said  :  '  There  is  no  other  way.  As 
the  People  is  superstitious,  it  is  necessary  to  frighten  them  by  the 
name  of  God  and  Religion.'     So  they  said  : 

"'Our  dear  brothers — our  children!  God  has  appointed  us  to 
govern  you.' 

"  5.    '  Show  us  your  heavenly  authority.' 

"  31.  '  You  must  have  faith:   Reason  deceives.' 

"  S.    '  Do  you  rule  us  without  Reason  ?' 

"  M.  '  God  wishes  Peace  :  Religion  prescribes  Obedience.' 

"  S.  'Peace  supposes  Justice:  Obedience  wishes  to  know  the 
Law.' 

"  M.  '  One  is  here  below  only  to  suffer.' 

"  <S.    '  Show  us  an  example  !' 

"  M.  '  Do  you  wish  to  live  without  God  and  without  Kings  V 

"  S.    '  We  would  live  without  Tyrants.'  " 

[My  aunt,  who,  on  account  of  my  habitual  carelessness — "  not 
to  suggest  occasional  approach  to  something  like  vulgarity" — of 
style,  is  good  enough  to  assist  me  in  reading  proofs,  thinks  that 
I  ought  not  to  make  use  of  a  quotation  from  this  heterodox 
historian,  without  a  clearer  indication  of  my  own  opinions. 
The  Episcopalians,  in  the  words  of  a  certain  un-eminent  South- 
ern divine,  "  are  a  high-sailin'  set,"  and  easily  offended,  and  The 
Churchman,  she  thinks,  will  be  sure  to  suggest  doubts  of  my 
rigid  orthodoxy.] 

A  great  many  bad  things  have  been  furnished  with  props  out 
of  Scripture,  by  bad  men,  and  a  great  many  more  by  mistaken 
men,  and  the  venerable  Virginia  prelate  is  not  infallible.  Exactly 
what  such  passages  as  he  quotes  were  intended  to  teach,  it  is 
not  for  me  to  define  and  limit ;  but  that  they  were  meant  to 


VIRGINIA.  121 

encourage  any  men,  immortal  and  accountable,  under  all  circum- 
stances and  forever,  to  submit,  in  acquiescent  stupefaction,  to 
Slavery,  I  venture  to  discredit.  Because  it  is  contrary  to  nature 
and  to  common  sense,  and  I  think  it  takes  a  more  hair-splitting 
mind,  than  negroes  are  generally  endowed  with,  to  think  otherwise. 
Because  it  seems  to  me  that,  to  do  so,  it  is  necessary  that  a  man 
should  acquire  a  more  debased  condition  of  soul  than  to  be  a  schis- 
matic, a  fanatic,  or  a  murderer.  Suppose  the  bishop  had  been  con- 
signed to  my  cell  at  Gadsby's,  and  had  found  it  not  only  wanting 
in  comfort,  but  possessed  by  vermin,  and  stenches,  and  damp,  and 
Mr.  Dexter  had  been  ready  with  1  Tim.  vi.,  8,  and  ordered 
him,  on  the  strength  of  it,  to  shut  up  and  go  to  bed,  when  he 
mildly  objected  to  the  arrangements,  would  he  have  meekly 
resigned  himself  to  certain  bronchitis,  and  a  probability  of  acute 
laryngitis  and  speedy  transfer  to  the  eternal  mansions  %  I 
respect  him  too  much  to  believe  it.  The  relation  between  an 
impostor  and  one  who  carelessly  and  slothfully  allows  himself 
to  be  imposed  upon,  is  the  same  as  that  between  a  thief  and  a 
receiver  of  stolen  goods.  Indolent  acquiescence  in  that  which 
is  unjust  and  harmful  to  us,  is  as  wrong  as  a  revengeful  or  an 
unforgiving  spirit ;  and  if  the  Apostles  had  had  to  travel  by  our 
rail-roads,  and  rest  at  our  hotels,  and  employ  our  hackney- 
coachmen,  I  believe  they  would  have  said  so  in  so  many  words. 
The  bishop  seems  to  me  to  teach,  by  implication,  the  doctrine 
of  the  Divine  Eight  of  Kings ;  for  what  else,  except  in  name,  is 
this  divine  right  of  oversight  with  which  he  invests  the  slave's 
master,  and  for  disloyalty  to  which  he  threatens  corresponding 
torment  eternal  ?  In  doing  so,  is  he  not  disloyal  and  rebellious 
to  his  own  sovereign,  "the  Good  People  of  Virginia,"  for  their 

sovereignty  is  based  in  treason,  and  in  denial  of  this  divine  right 
6 


122  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

of  government  of  one  man  over  another  ?  If  the  bishop  does 
not  repent,  where  does  he  expect  to  go  to  % 

My  aunt  thinks  that,  before  I  venture  to  object  to  the  preach- 
ing of  a  bishop,  I  should  be  ready  to  say  what  should  be 
preached  to  slaves,  while  the  necessity  of  keeping  them  in 
Slavery  continues.  I  don't  admit  this ;  yet  I  may  say,  in 
general,  that  I  should  think  that  it  would  be  encouragement  to 
them,  to  so  conduct  and  train  themselves  that  this  necessity 
should  be  removed  as  rapidly  as  possible ;  the  supposition 
being  always  maintained,  that  this  necessity  rested  on  the 
extraordinary  stupidity  and  vicious  proclivities  of  the  slaves 
themselves,  and  would  be  happily  removed  by  their  enlighten- 
ment and  growth  in  grace. 

"What  says  the  learned  and  pious  father  Gregory,  bishop 
of  the  sixth  century  of  Christianity? 

(jfftuttm  rcacmpior  nosier,  totins  "conoitor  creaiurce,  ab 
hoc  propitiatus  {]mnanam  uohurit  rarnati  assmnm,  tit 
bitrinitatis  sua?  gratia,  birnpto  quo  Icncbamur  raptim  triu- 
raio,  smutatis,  "pristina  nos  rcstituerit  iibcrtati  salubrita: 
agitur  si  homines  quos  ab  initio  natura  libcros  protulit,  zl 
jus  gentium  jugo  substitirit  sartritaiis,  in  ea  qua  noti  sunt, 
inanumittcntis  benefiric,  libcrtatc  rebbantur. 

Decret.  Grat.  P.  11.  Caus.  XII.  Qucest.  2* 

I  had  an  idea  that  a  good  deal  was  done,  with  some 
reference  to  the  future  freedom  of  the  slaves ;  but  I  can't  hear 
that  such  is  the    case,  in   the  Episcopal   or   any  other  Chris- 

*  Now,  as  our  Redeemer  and  the  Creator  of  every  creature,  was  willing  to 
assume  a  human  body,  in  order  that  by  the  grace  of  his  divinity  he  might 
break  the  bonds  of  servitude,  wherein  we  were  held  captive,  and  restore  us  to 
our  freedom ;  so  it  is  a  good  and  salutary  thing  when  those  who,  by  nature, 
were  created  free,  and  whom  the  laws  of  men  have  reduced  to  slavery,  are, 
by  the  benefaction  of  manumission,  restored  to  that  liberty  in  which  they  were 
born. 


VIRGINIA.  123 

tian  organization.  The  Church  of  England  form  of  worship 
is,  in  my  opinion,  the  best  calculated  to  encourage  their  eleva- 
tion, of  any  used  at  the  South ;  and  the  slaves  who  habitu- 
ally attend  and  commune  in  the  Episcopal  church  are,  as  a 
general  rule,  much  more  intelligent  and  elevated  in  their  re- 
ligious nature  than  any  others.  The  ceremony  and  pomp, 
the  frequent  responses  and  chants,  in  which  negroes  are  ex- 
pected and  encouraged  to  unite,  in  unison  with  the  whites,  and 
the  liturgical  system  of  instruction  in  religious  truth,  are  all 
favorable  to  the  improvement  in  character  of  the  negro,  and 
admirably  adapted  to  the  idiosyncrasies  of  his  nature. 

The  Baptist  and  Methodist  clergy,  when  addressing  negro 
congregations,  are  said  to  spend  most  of  their  force  in  arguing 
against  each  other's  doctrines,  and  the  negroes  are  represented  to 
have  a  great  taste  for  theological  controversy. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  way  in  which  a  great  many  negroes 
understood  a  certain  tenet  of  the  Baptists,  a  gentleman  narrated 
the  following  circumstance : 

A  slave,  who  was  "a  professor,"  plagued  his  master  very 
much  by  his  persistence  in  certain  immoral  practices,  and  he 
requested  a  clergyman  to  converse  with  him  and  try  to  reform 
him.  The  clergyman  did  so,  and  endeavored  to  bring  the  terrors 
of  the  law  to  bear  upon  his  conscience.  "  Look  yeah,  massa," 
said  the  backslider,  "don't  de  Scriptur  say,  'Dem  who  believes 
an  is  baptize  shall  be  save?'"  "Certainly,"  the  clergyman  an- 
swered ;  and  went  on  to  explain  and  expound  the  passage :  but 
directly  the  slave  interrupted  him  again. 

"  Jus  you  tell  me  now,  massa,  don't  de  good  book  say  dese  word : 
'  Dem  as  believes  and  is  baptize,  shall  be  save  ;'  want  to  know  dat.'-' 

"Yes;  but—" 


124  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

"Dat's  all  I  want  to  know,  sar;  now  wat's  de  use  o'  talkin  to 
me  ?  You  aint  a  goin  to  make  me  bleve  wat  de  blessed  Lord 
says,  an't  so,  not  ef  you  tries  forever." 

The  clergyman  again  attempted  to  explain,  but  tbe  negro 
would  not  allow  him,  and  as  often  as  he  got  back  to  the  judgment- 
day,  or  charging  him  with  sin,  and  demanding  reformation,  he 
would  interrupt  him  in  the  same  way. 

"  De  Script ur  say,  if  a  man  believe  and  be  baptize  he  shall — 
he  shall,  be  save.  Now,  massa  minister,  I  done  believe  and 
I  done  baptize,  an  /  shall  be  save  suah. — Dere's  no  use  talkin, 
sar." 

My  remarks  in  this  letter,  upon  the  religious  and  moral  con- 
dition of  the  slaves,  are  to  be  considered  as  my  first  impressions 
from  what  I  see  and  hear.  There  appears  to  be  a  great  difference 
of  opinion  among  those  who  have  had  better  opportunities  of 
judging  than  I,  on  the  subject,  and  it  is  fair  that  I  should  say, 
that  some  assure  me  they  have  no  doubt  the  religious  character 
of  the  slaves,  who  are  members  of  churches,  is  as  high  as  that  of 
the  white  members,  and  that  it  is  better  than  that  of  the  lower  class 
of  whites.  Opinions  as  to  the  general  standard  of  morality 
among  the  slaves  are  strongly  contradictory.  My  own  impres- 
sion has,  therefore,  been  derived  from  facts  that  I  hear,  and  from 
general  observation  of  the  manners  and  conversation  of  the 
slaves.  It  is  true  that  a  great  deal  of  religious  phraseology  and 
much  Scripture  language  is  used  by  them ;  but  the  very  levity 
and  inappropriateness  with  which  it  is  applied,  shows  a  want  of  a 
right  appreciation  of  it.  It  is  not  at  all  improbable,  however, 
that  I  shall  find  occasion  to  modify  this  early  formed  opinion,  as 
I  see  and  hear  further.  Of  the  frequently  elevated  religious  and 
moral  as  well  as  cultivated  and  refined  intellectual  character  of 


VIRGINIA.  125 

the  more  favored  household  servants  of  many  excellent  families, 
there  can  be  no  room  for  doubt.  I  have  hardly  less  doubt,  how- 
ever, of  the  almost  heathenish  condition  of  the  slaves  on  many  of 
the  large  plantations.  SV,.^,    ' 

FREE   NEGROES    IN    VIRGINIA. 

"  Slavery  is  such  an  atrocious  debasement  of  human  nature,  that  its  very 
extirpation,  if  not  performed  with  solicitous  care,  may  sometimes  open  a  source 
of  serious  evils." — Benjamin  Franklin. 

During  forty-five  years,  according  to  Howison,  the  number  of    $ 
white  convicts  in  the  Virginia  penitentiaries  was  in  the  ratio  of  1     / 

v/ 

to  about  328  of  the  whole  population ;  the  number  of  colored 
convicts,  1  in  67.  "  The  free  negroes  and  mulattoes  are, 
unquestionably,"  says  this  historian,  "  the  most  vicious  and 
corrupting  of  the  varied  materials  composing  our  social 
system."  "  The  criminal  law,  as  to  free  colored  persons  and 
slaves,  differs  widely  from  that  applied  to  whites.  The 
free  negroes  occupy  an  equivocal  and  most  unhappy  position 
between  the  whites  and  slaves,  and  the  laws  affecting  them 
partake  of  this  peculiarity.  Capital  punishment  is  inflicted 
on  them  for  offenses  more  lightly  punished  in  whites.  They 'are 
entitled  to  trial  by  jury  in  cases  of  homicide  and  in  all  capital 
cases,  but,  for  all  other  crimes,  they  are  tried  by  justices'  courts  of 
Oyer  and  Terminer,  who  must  be  unanimous  in  order  to  convict. 
They  are  subjected  to  restraint  and  surveillance  in  points  beyond 
number." 

To  show  their  poverty  and  the  benevolence  of  providing  for 
the  race  by  slavery,  I  am  told  that  in  one  county,  a  few  years 
ago,  an  inventory  and  estimate  of  the  value  of  their  property  was 
made  by  order  of  the  magistracy.  With  one  exception,  the 
highest  value  placed  upon  the  property  of   an  individual  was 


126  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

two  dollars  and  a  half,  ($2  50).  The  person  excepted  owned 
one  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  land,  a  cabin  upon  it,  a  mule 
and  some  implements.  He  had  a  family  of  nine.  Of  pro- 
visions for  its  support,  there  were  in  the  house,  at  the  time  of 
the  visit  of  the  appraisers,  a  peck  and  a  half  of  Indian  meal 
and  part  of  a  herring.  The  man  was  then  absent  to  purchase 
some  more  meal,  but  had  no  money,  and  was  to  give  his 
promise  to  pay  in  wood,  which  he  was  to  cut  from  his  farm. 
And  this  was  in  winter. 

That  this  poverty  is  not  the  result  of  want  of  facilities  or  security 
of  accumulating  property,  is  proved  by  the  exceptional  instances  of 
considerable  wealth  existing  among  them.  An  account  of  the 
death  of  a  free  colored  man,  who  devised  by  will  property  to  the 
amount  of  thirty  thousand  dollars,  has  lately  been  in  the  news- 
papers. I  am  assured,  by  one  who  knew  the  man  very  well,  of 
the  general  accuracy  of  the  narration,  though  one  somewhat 
important  circumstance  was  omitted.  It  was  stated  that  the  man 
preferred  that  his  children  should  continue  in  the  condition  of 
slaves,  and  gave  his  property  to  a  man  who  was  to  be  their 
master.  He  gave  as  a  reason  for  this,  that  he  had  personally 
examined  the  condition  of  the  free  blacks  in  Philadelphia  and 
Boston,  as  well  as  in  Virginia,  and  he  preferred  that  his  children 
should  remain  slaves,  knowing  that  their  master  would  take 
better  care  of  them  than  they  were  capable  of  exercising  for 
themselves.  This  was  substantially  correct.  He  had  been, 
however,  for  a  long  time  before  his  death,  in  a  low  state  of 
nealth,  and  it  is  not  known  how  sound,  or  uninfluenced  by  others, 
his  mind  might  have  been.  The  circumstance  omitted  was,  that 
these  were  illegitimate  children,  by  a  slave  woman,  and  that  he 
simply  left  them  in  the  condition  in  which  they  were  born,  in  the 


VIRGINIA.  127 

care  of  their  legal  owner,  having  himself  no  legal  right  to  dispose 
of  them  in  any  other  way.  It  is  a  general  custom  of  white 
people  here  to  leave  their  illegitimate  children,  by  slaves  (and 
they  are  very  common),  in  slavery.  The  man  was  himself  a 
mulatto. 

A  man  of  wealth  and  station,  who  enjoys  the  friendship  of  the 
best  and  most  respected  people,  lately  sold  his  own  half-brother, 
an  intelligent,  and  of  course  "  valuable,"  young  man,  to  the 
traders,  to  be  sent  South,  because  he  had  attempted  to  run  away 
to  the  Free  States.  So  I  am  informed  by  his  neighbor  and 
friend. 

At  the  present  rate  of  wages,  any  free  colored  man  might 
accumulate  property  more  rapidly  in  Virginia  than  almost  any 
man,  depending  solely  on  his  labor,  can  at  the  North.  In 
the  tobacco-factories  in  Richmond  and  Petersburg,  slaves 
are,  at  this  time,  in  great  demand,  and  are  paid  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  to  two  hundred  dollars,  and  all  expenses,  for 
a  year.  These  slaves  are  expected  to  work  only  to  a  certain 
extent  for  their  employers ;  it  having  been  found  that  they  could 
not  be  "driven"  to  do  a  fair  day's  work  so  easily  as  they  could 
be  stimulated  to  it  by  the  offer  of  a  bonus  for  all  they  would 
manufacture  above  a  certain  number  of  pounds.  This  quantity 
is  so  easily  exceeded,  that  the  slaves  earn  for  themselves  from 
five  to  twenty  dollars  a  month.  Freemen  are  paid  for  all  they 
do,  at  rates  which  make  their  labor  equally  profitable,  and  can 
earn,  if  they  give  but  moderate  attention  and  diligence  to  the 
labor,  very  large  sums.  One  man's  wages  amounted  last  year, 
as  I  am  informed  by  his  employer,  to  over  nine  hundred  dollars ; 
but  he  is  supposed  to  have  laid  up  none  of  it.  Nearly  all  the 
negroes,  slave  and  free,  it  is  said,  spend  their  money  as  fast  as 


128  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

they  receive  it.  And  nearly  all  of  it  goes  in  a  manner  to  do 
them  injury. 

Formerly,  it  is  said,  the  slaves  were  accustomed  to  amuse 
themselves,  in  the  evening  and  on  holidays,  a  great  deal  in 
dancing,  and  they  took  great  enjoyment  in  this  exercise.  It 
was  at  length,  however,  preached  against,  and  the  "professors" 
so  generally  induced  to  use  their  influence  against  it,  as  an 
immoral  practice,  that  it  has  greatly  gone  "out  of  fashion," 
and,  in  place  of  it,  the  young  ones  have  got  into  the  habit,  of 
gambling,  and  worse  occupations,  for  the  pastime  of  their  holi- 
days and  leisure  hours.  I  have  not  seen  any  dancing  during 
these  holidays,  nor  any  recreation  engaged  in  by  the  blacks,  that 
is  not  essentially  gross,  dissipating,  or  wasteful,  unless  I  except 
the  firing  of  crackers. 

Improvidence  is  generally  considered  here  a  natural  trait  of 
African  character ;  and  by  none  is  it  more  so  than  by  the 
negroes  themselves.  I  think  it  is  a  mistake.  Negroes,  as  far 
as  I  have  observed  at  the  North,  although  suffering  from  the 
contamination  of  habits  acquired  by  themselves  or  their  fathers 
in  Slavery,  are  more  provident  than  whites  of  equal  educational 
advantages.  Much  more  so  than  the  newly-arrived  Irish,  though 
the  Irish,  soon  after  their  immigration,  are  usually  infected  with 
the  desire  of  accumulating  Avealth  and  acquiring  permanent 
means  of  comfort.  This  opinion  is  confirmed  by  the  experience 
of  our  City  Missionaries — one  of  whom  has  informed  me  that 
where  the  very  poorest  classes  of  New  York  reside,  black  and 
white  in  the  same  house,  the  rooms  occupied  by  the  blacks 
are  generally  much  less  bare  of  furniture  and  the  means  of 
subsistence  than  those  of  the  whites. 

I  observed  that  the  negroes  themselves  follow  the  notion  of 


VIRGINIA.  129 

the  whites  here,  and  look  upon  the  people  of  their  race  as 
naturally  unfitted  to  look  out  for  themselves  far  ahead.  Accus- 
tomed, like  children,  to  have  all  their  necessary  wants  provided 
for,  their  whole  energies  and  powers  of  mind  are  habitually 
given  to  obtaining  the  means  of  temporary  ease  and  enjoyment. 
Their  masters  and  the  poor  or  "mean"  whites  acquire  some- 
what of  the  same  habits  from  early  association  with  them, 
calculate  on  it  in  them — do  not  wish  to  cure  it — and  by  constant 
practices  encourage  it.  For  the  means  of  enjoying  themselves 
the  negroes  depend  much  on  presents.  Their  good-natured  mas- 
ters (and  their  masters  are  generally  very  good-natured,  though 
capricious)  like  to  gratify  them,  and  are  ashamed  to  disappoint 
them — to  be  thought  mean.  So  it  follows  that,  with  the  free  ne- 
groes, habit  is  upon  them ;  the  habits  of  their  associates,  slaves 
make  the  custom  of  society — that  strongest  of  agents  upon  weak 
minds.  The  whites  think  improvidence  a  natural  defect  of 
character  with  them,  expect  it  of  them ;  as  they  grow  old,  or,  as 
they  lose  easy  means  of  gaining  a  livelihood,  charitably  furnish 
it  to  them ;  expect  them  to  pilfer ;  do  not  look  upon  it  as  a 
crime,  or  at  least  consider  them  but  slightly  to  blame ;  and 
so  every  influence  and  association  is  unfavorable  to  providence, 
forethought,  economy. 

With  such  influences  upon  them,  with  such  a  character,  with 
such  education,  with  such  associations,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
Southerners  say  that  the  condition  of  the  slave  who  is  subject  to 
some  wholesome  restraint,  and  notwithstanding  his  improvidence 
is  systematically  provided  for,  is  preferable  to  that  of  the  free  black. 
The  free  black  does  not,  in  general,  feel  himself  superior  to 
the  slave;  and  the  slaves  of  the  wealthy  and  aristocratic  families 
consider  themselves  in  a  much  better  and  more  honorable  position 


130  OUR      SLAVE     STATES. 

than  the  free  blacks.     Their  view  of  the  matter  is  said  to  be 

expressed   thus:   "  dirty  free  niggers! — got  nobody  to  take 

care  of  'em." 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  slaves  of  gentlemen  of  high  charac- 
ter, who  are  treated  with  judicious  indulgence,  and  who  can 
rely  with  confidence  on  the  permanence  of  their  position,  know- 
ing that  they  will  be  kindly  cared  for  as  they  grow  old,  and 
feeling  their  own  incapacity  to  take  care  of  themselves,  do  often 
voluntarily  remain  in  slavery  when  freedom  is  offered  them, 
whether  it  be  at  the  South,  or  North,  or  in  Africa.  A  great 
many  slaves  that  have  been  freed  and  sent  to  the  North,  after 
remaining  there  for  a  time,  are  said  to  have  returned — longing, 
like  the  faithless  Israelites,  for  the  flesh  pots  of  Slavery — of  their 
own  accord,  to  Virginia,  and  their  report  of  the  manner  in 
which  negroes  are  treated  there,  the  difficulty  of  earning  enough 
to  provide  themselves  with  the  luxuries  to  which  they  have  been 
accustomed,  the  unkindness  of  the  white  people  to  them,  and 
the  want  of  that  thoughtless  liberality  in  payments  to  them 
which  they  expect  here  from  their  superiors,  has  not  been  such 
as  to  lead  others  to  pine  for  the  life  of  an  outcast  at  the  North. 

A  number  of  Mr.  Eandolph's  slaves,  it  has  been  several  times 
mentioned  to  me,  have  thus  returned.  It  is  well  known  that 
Mr.  Eandolph  took  a  humane  and  democratic  view  of  Slavery ; 
and  his  neglect  to  educate  them  for  the  liberty  which,  after  his 
death,  he  bequeathed  to  them,  may  have  added  much  to  that 
terrible  remorse  which  darkened  his  death-bed. 

It  is  certainly  true  that  the  negroes,  either  slave  or  free,  are 
not  generally  disposed  to  go  to  Liberia.  It  is  a  distant  country, 
of  which  they  can  have  but  very  little  reliable  information,  and 
they  do  not  like  the  idea,  any  more  than  other  people,  of  emigrat- 


VIRGINIA.  131 

ing  from  their  native  country.  But  I  really  think  that  the  best 
reason  for  their  not  being  more  anxious  to  go  there  is,  that  they 
are  sincerely  attached,  in  a  certain  way,  to  the  white  race.  At 
all  events,  they  do  not  incline  to  live  in  communities  entirely 
separate  from  the  whites,  and  do  not  long  for  entire  independ- 
ence from  them.  They  have  been  so  long  accustomed  to  trust- 
ing the  government  of  all  weighty  matters  to  the  whites,  that 
they  would  not  feel  at  ease  where  they  did  not  have  them  to 
"  take  care  of  'em."  They  do  not  feel  inclined  to  take  great 
responsibilities  on  themselves,  and  have  no  confidence  in  the 
talent  of  their  race  for  self-government.  A  gentleman  told 
me  that  he  owned  a  very  intelligent  negro,  who  had  acquired 
some  property,  and  that  he  had  more  than  once  offered  him 
his  freedom,  but  he  would  always  reply  that  he  did  not 
feel  able  to  fall  entirely  upon  his  own  resources,  and  pre- 
ferred to  have  a  master.  He  once  offered  him  his  freedom 
to  go  to  Liberia,  and  urged  him  to  go  there.  His  reply  was 
to  the  effect  that  he  would  have  no  objections  if  the  govern- 
ment was  in  the  hands  of  white  folks,  but  that  he  had  no  con- 
fidence in  the  ability  of  black  people  to  undertake  the  control 
of  public  affairs. 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  intimating  that  the  slaves 
generally  would  not  like  to  be  freed  and  sent  to  the  North,  or  that 
they  are  ever  really  contented  or  satisfied  with  slavery  ;  only  thai 
having  been  deprived  of  the  use  of  their  limbs  from  infancy,  as  i» 
were,  they  may  not  wish  now  suddenly  to  be  set  upon  their  feet, 
and  left  to  shift  for  themselves.  They  may  prefer  to  secure  at 
least  plain  food  and  clothing,  and  comfortable  lodging,  at  theii 
owner's  expense,  while  they  will  return  as  little  for  it  as  they 
can,  and  have  only  the  luxuries  of  life  to  work  for  on  their  own 


1-32  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

account,     it  is  not  easy  to  deprive  them  of  the  means  of  secur- 
ing a  share  of  these. 

These  luxuries,  to  be  sure,  may  be  of  very  degrading  charac- 
ter, and  such  as,  according  to  our  ideas,  they  would  be  better 
without ;  but  their  tastes  and  habits  are  formed  to  enjoy  them, 
and  they  are  not  likely  to  be  content  -without. 

But,  to  live  either  on  their  own  means,  or  the  charitable  assist- 
ance of  others,  at  the  North,  they  must  dispense  with  many  of  these 
things.    It  is  as  much  as  most  of  them — more  than  some  of  them, 
with  us — can  do,  by  their  labor,  to  obtain  the  means  of  subsist- 
ence, such  as  they  have  been  used  to   being  provided  with,  with- 
out a  thought  of  their  own,  at  the  South.    And  if  they  are  known 
to  indulge  in  practices  that  are  habitual  with  the  race,  they  will 
.not  only  lose  the  charity,  but  even  the  custom,  of  most  of  their 
philanthropic  friends  ;  and  then  they  must  turn  to  pilfering  again, 
or  meet  that  most  pitiful  of  all  extremities — poverty  from  want 
of  work.     Again :  suppose  them  to  wish  to  indulge  in  their  old 
habits  of  sensual  pleasure,  they  can  only  do  so  by  forsaking  the 
better  class  of  even  their  own  color,  or  by  chawing  them  down 
to  their  own  level.     In  this  way,  Slavery,  even  now,  day  by  day, 
is  greatly  responsible  for  the  degraded  and  immoral  condition  of 
the  free  blacks  of  our  cities,  and  especially   of  Philadelphia.     It 
is,  perhaps,  necessary  that  I  should  explain   that  licentiousness 
and  almost  indiscriminate  sexual  connection  among  the  young  is 
very  general,  and  is  &  necessity  of  the   system  of  Slavery.     A 
Northern  family  that  employs  slave-domestics,  and  insists  upon 
a   life    of  physical    chastity  in  its  female  servants,    is   always 
greatly  detested  ;  and  they  frequently  come  to  their  owners  and 
beg  to  be  taken  away,  or  not  hired  again,  though  acknowledging 
themselves   to  be   kind]y   treated   in    all   other  respects.      A 


VIRGINIA.  133 

slave-owner  told  me  this  of  his  own  girls  hired  to  Northern 
people. 

That  the  character  and  condition  of  some  is  improved  by 
coming  to  the  North,  it  is  impossible  to  deny.  From  a  miser- 
able, half  barbarous,  half  brutal  state  they  have  been  brought  in 
contact  with  the  highest  civilization.  From  slaves  they  have, 
sometimes,  come  to  be  men  of  intelligence,  cultivation,  and 
refinement.  There  are  no  white  men  in  the  United  States 
that  display  every  attribute  of  a  strong  and  good  soul  better 
than  some  of  the  freed  slaves.  What  would  Frederick  Douglass 
have  been  had  he  failed  to  escape  from  that  service  which 
Bishop  Meade  dares  to  say  is  the  service  of  God;  had  his 
spirit  been  once  broken  by  that  man  who,  Bishop  Meade 
would  have  taught  him,  was  God's  chosen  overseer  of  his  body? 
What  has  he  become  since  he  dared  commit  the  sacrilege  of 
coming  out  of  bondage?  All  the  statesmanship  and  kind 
mastership  of  the  South  has  done  less,  in  fifty  years,  to  elevate 
and  dignify  the  African  race,  than  he  in  ten. 


PETERSBURG    TO    NORFOLK. 

In  order  to  be  in  time  for  the  train  of  cars  in  which  I  was  to 
leave  Petersburg  for  Norfolk,  I  was  called  up  at  an  unusual  hour 
in  the  morning  and  provided  with  a  very  poor  breakfast,  on  the 
ground  that  there  had  not  been  time  to  prepare  a  decent  one, 
(though  I  was  charged  full  time  on  the  bill),  advised  by  the 
landlord  to  hurry  when  I  seated  myself  at  the  table,  and  two 
minutes  afterwards  informed  that,  if  I  remained  longer,  I  should 
be  too  late. 

Thanks  to  these  kind  precautions,  I  reached  the  station  twenty 


134  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

minutes  before  the  train  left,  and  was  afterwards  carried  with 
about  fifty  other  people  at  the  rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour  to 
City-point,  where  all  were  discharged  under  a  dirty  shed,  from 
which  a  wharf  projected  into  James  river. 

The  train  was  advertised  to  connect  here  with  a  steamboat 
for  Norfolk.  Finding  no  steamboat  at  the  wharf,  I  feared,  at 
first,  that  the  delay  in  leaving  Petersburg  and  the  slow  speed 
upon  the  road  had  detained  us  so  long  that  the  boat  had 
departed  without  us.  But  observing  no  disappointment  or 
concern  expressed  by  the  other  passengers,  I  concluded  the 
boat  was  to  call  for  us,  and  had  yet  to  arrive.  An  hour 
passed,  during  which  I  tried  to  keep  warm  by  walking  up 
and  down  the  wharf;  rain  then  commenced  falling,  and  I 
returned  to  the  crowded  shed  and  asked  a  young  man,  who 
was  engaged  in  cutting  the  letters  Gr.  W.  B.,  with  a  dirk- 
knife,  upon  the  head  of  a  tobacco-cask,  what  Avas  supposed 
to  have  detained  the  steamboat. 

"Detained  her?  there  aint  no  detention  to  her  as  I  know 
on;  'taint  hardly  time  for  her  to  be  along  yet." 

Another  half  hour,  in  fact,  passed,  before  the  steamboat 
arrived,  nor  was  any  impatience  manifested  by  the  passengers. 
All  seemed  to  take  this  hurrying  and  waiting  process  as  the 
regular  thing.  The  women  sat  sullenly  upon  trunks  and  pack- 
ing-cases, and  watched  their  baggage  and  restrained  their 
children  ;  the  men  chewed  tobacco  and  read  newspapers,  lounged 
first  01  one  side  and  then  on  the  other,  some  smoked,  some 
walked  away  to  a  distant  tavern,  some  reclined  on  the  heaps  of 
freight  and  went  to  sleep,  and  a  few  conversed  quietly  and  inter- 
mittingly  with  one  another. 


VIRGINIA.  135 

THE    JAMES    RIVER. 

The  shores  of  the  James  river  are  low  and  level — the  scenery 
uninteresting;  but  frequent  planters'  mansions,  often  of  great 
size  and  of  some  elegance,  stand  upon  the  bank,  and  sometimes 
these  have  very  pretty  and  well-kept  grounds  about  them — finer 
than  any  other  I  have  seen  at  the  South — and  the  plantations 
surrounding  them  are  cultivated  with  neatness  and  skill.  Many 
men  distinguished  in  law  and  politics  here  have  their  homes. 

I  was  pleased  to  see  the  appearance  of  enthusiasm  with  which 
some  passengers,  who  were  landed  from  our  boat  at  one  of  these 
places,  were  received  by  two  or  three  well-dressed  negro  servants, 
who  had  come  from  the  house  to  the  wharf  to  meet  them.  Black 
and  white  met  with  kisses,  and  the  effort  of  a  long-haired 
sophomore  to  maintain  his  supercilious  dignity,  was  quite  ineffec- 
tual to  kill  the  kindness  of  a  fat  mulatto  woman,  who  joyfully 
and  pathetically  shouted,  as  she  caught  him  off  the  gang-plank, 
"  Oh  Massa  George,  is  you  come  back !"  Field  negroes,  standing 
by,  looked  on  with  their  usual  besotted  expression,  and  neither 
offered  nor  received  greetings. 

NORFOLK. 

I  arrived  in  Norfolk  on  the  eve  of  a  terrific  gale,  during  which 
vessels  at  anchor  in  the  Eoads  went  down,  and  the  city  and 
country  were  much  excited  by  various  disasters,  both  on  shore 
and  at  sea. 

Jan.  10th.  Norfolk  is  a  dirty,  low,  ill-arranged  town,  nearly 
divided  by  a  morass.  It  has  a  single  creditable  public  building, 
a  number  of  fine  private  residences,  and  the  polite  society  is 
reputed  to  be  agreeable,  refined,  and  cultivated,  receiving  a 
character  from  the  families  of  the  resident  naval  officers.     It  has 


136  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

all  the  immoral  and  disagreeable  characteristics  of  a  large 
seaport,  with  very  few  of  the  advantages  that  we  should  expect 
to  find  as  relief  to  them.  No  lyceum  or  public  libraries,  no 
public  gardens,  no  galleries  of  art,  and  though  there  are  two 
"  Bethels,"  no  "  home"  for  its  seamen ;  no  public  resorts  of 
healthful  and  refining  amusement,  no  place  better  than  a  filthy, 
tobacco-impregnated  bar-room  or  a  licentious  dance-cellar,  so  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  learn,  for  the  stranger  of  high  or  low 
degree  to  pass  the  hours  unoccupied  by  business. 

Lieut.  Maury  has  lately  very  well  shown  what  advantages 
were  originally  possessed  for  profitable  commerce  at  this  point,  in 
a  report,  the  intention  of  which  is  to  advocate  the  establishment 
of  a  line  of  steamers  hence  to  Para,  the  port  of  the  mouth  of  the 
Amazon.  I  have  the  best  wishes  for  the  success  of  the  project 
in  its  important  features,  and  the  highest  respect  for  the 
judgment  of  Lieut.  Maury,  but  it  seems  to  me  pertinent  to 
inquire  why  are  the  British  Government  steamers  not  sent 
exclusively  to  Halifax,  the  nearest  port  to  England,  instead  of 
to  the  more  distant  and  foreign  port  of  New  York?  If  a  Govern- 
ment line  of  steamers  should  be  established  between  Para  and 
Norfolk,  and  should  be  found  in  the  least  degree  commercially 
profitable,  how  long  would  it  be  before  another  line  would  be 
established  between  New  York  and  Para,  by  private  enterprise, 
and  then  how  much  business  would  be  left  for  the  Government 
steamers  while  they  continued  to  end  their  voyage  at  Norfolk  ? 
So,  too,  with  regard  to  a  line  from  Antwerp  to  Norfolk,  (a 
proposition  to  grant  State  aid  for  establishing  which,  was  the 
chief  topic  of  public  discussion  in  Virginia,  at  the  time  of  mj 
visit).     Lieut.  Maury  says,  however : 

"Norfolk  is  in  a  position  to  have  commanded  the  business  of  the 


VIRGINIA.  137 

Atlantic  sea-board  :  it  is  midway  the  coast.  It  has  a  back  country 
of  great  facility  and  resources  ;  and,  as  to  approaches  to  the  ocean, 
there  is  no  harbor  from  the  St.  Johns  to  the  Rio  Grande  that  has 
the  same  facilities  of  ingress  and  egress  at  all  times  and  in  all 
weathers.  *  *  The  back  country  of  Norfolk  is  all  that  which  is 
drained  by  the  Chesapeake  Bay — embracing  a  line  drawn  along  the 
ridge  between  the  Delaware  and  the  Chesapeake,  thence  northerly, 
including  all  of  Pennsylvania  that  is  in  the  valley  of  the  Susquehan- 
na, all  of  Maryland  this  side  of  the  mountains,  the  valleys  of  the 
Potomac,  Rappahannock,  York,  and  James  rivers,  with  the  Valley 
of  the  Roanoke,  and  a  great  part  of  the  State  of  North  Carolina, 
whose  only  outlet  to  the  sea  is  by  the  way  of  Norfolk." 

THE  NEGLECTED  OPPORTUNITIES  OP  NORFOLK. 

This  is  a  favorite  theme  with  Lieut.  Maury,  who  is  a  Vir- 
ginian. In  a  letter  to  the  National  Intelligencer,  Oct.  31,  1854, 
after  describing  similar  advantages  which  the  town  possesses 
to  those  enumerated  above,  he  continues  : 

••  Its  climate  is  delightful.  It  is  of  exactly  that  happy  tempera- 
ture where  the  frosts  of  the  North  bite  not,  and  the  pestilence  of  the 
South  walks  not.  Its  harbor  is  commodious  and  safe  as  safe  can  be. 
It  is  never  blocked  up  by  ice.  It  has  the  double  advantage  of  an 
inner  and  an  outer  harbor.  The  inner  harbor  is  as  smooth  as  any 
mill-pond.  In  it  vessels  lie  with  perfect  security,  where  every  ima- 
ginable facility  is  offered  for  loading  and  unloading."  *  *  *  * 
"The  back  country,  which  without  portage  is  naturally  tributary  to 
Norfolk,  not  only  surpasses  that  which  is  tributary  to  New  York  in 
mildness  of  climate,  in  fertility  of  soil,  and  variety  of  production, 
but  in  geographical  extent  by  many  square  miles.  The  proportion 
being  as  three  to  one  in  favor  of  the  Virginia  port."  *  *  *  "The 
natural  advantages,  then,  in  relation  to  the  sea  or  the  back  country, 
are  superior,  beyond  comparison,  to  those  of  New  York." 

There  is  little,  if  any  exaggeration  in  this  estimate ;  yet,  if  a 
deadly,  enervating  pestilence  had  always  raged  here,  this  Nor- 
folk could  not  be  a  more  miserable,  sorry  little  seaport  town 


138  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

than  it  is.*  It  was  not  possible  to  prevent  the  existence  of 
some  agency  here  for  the  transhipment  of  goods,  and  for  supply- 
ing the  needs  of  vessels,  compelled  by  exterior  circumstances  to 
take  refuge  in  the  harbor.  Beyond  this  bare  supply  of  a  ne- 
cessitous demand,  and  what  results  from  the  adjoining  naval 
rendezvous  of  the  nation,  there  is  nothing. 

Singularly  simple,  child-like  ideas  about  commercial  success, 
you  find  among  the  Virginians — even  among  the  merchants 
themselves.  The  agency  by  which  commodities  are  transferred 
from  the  producer  to  the  consumer,  they  seem  to  look  upon  as  a 
kind  of  swindling  operation ;  they  do  not  see  that  the  merchant 
acts  a  useful  part  in  the  community,  or,  that  his  labor  can 
be  other  than  selfish  and  malevolent.  They  speak  angrily 
of  New  York,  as  if  it  fattened  on  the  country  without  doing  the 
country  any  good  in  return.  They  have  no  idea  that  it  is  their 
business  that  the  New  Yorkers  are  doing,  and  that  whatever 
tends   to   facilitate  it,   and  make   it   simple   and  secure,  is   an 

*  This  was  written  and  printed  long  before  the  late  sad  visit  of  yellow  fever 
to  Norfolk.  I  should  hardly  let  it  stand  now,  if  I  had  not  previously  thought 
and  said,  when  in  the  town,  that  its  undrained  and  filthy  condition  was  such 
that  it  seemed  to  me  incredible  that  its  people  could  live  in  health.  If  the  con- 
dition of  the  town,  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  was  not  very  extraordinary,  this 
dreadful  visitor  certainly  did  not  come  uninvited. 

Since  writing  this  note,  my  attention  has  been  called  to  an  article  in  the  Boa- 
ton  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,  written  by  a  person  who  had  resided  for 
two  years  in  Norfolk,  and  who  says  the  town  is  "  destitute  of  sewerage,  and 
its  streets  are  extremely  filthy,  being  often  strewed  with  refuse  vegetables  and. 
other  garbage,  which  result  from  the  immense  quantity  of  provisions  brought 
into  the  city  for  export.  These  matters  become  rotten,  and  emit  a  most  noisome 
stench.  The  turkey-buzzard,  the  natural  scavenger  of  the  South,  is  not  found 
in  Norfolk,  but  his  place  is  supplied  by  cows,  who  wander  at  will  through 
the  town,  and  gather  an  unhealthy  subsistence  from  the  cabbage-stalks  and 
other  substances  which  lie  in  heap3  on  the  ground.  The  condition  of  Ports- 
mouth  is  much  worse  than  that  of  Norfolk.  It  is  connected  with  Gosport  by  a 
causeway,  nearly  a  mile  in  length,  if  we  are  not  mistaken,  across  a  swamp  or 
flat,  from  which  arises  a  powerful  stench. 


VIRGINIA.  139 

increase  of  their  wealth  by  diminishing  the  costs  and  lessening 
the  losses  upon  it. 

They  gravely  demand  why  the  government  mail  steamers 
should  be  sent  to  New  York,  when  New  York  has  so  much 
business  already,  and  why  the  nation  should  build  costly 
custom-houses  and  post-offices,  and  mints,  and  sea  defenses, 
and  collect  stores  and  equipments  there,  and  not  at  Norfolk, 
and  Petersburg,  and  Richmond,  and  Danville,  and  Lynchburg, 
and  Smithtown,  and  Jones's  Cross-Eoads?  It  seems  never  to 
have  occurred  to  them  that  it  is  because  the  country  needs  them 
there,  because  the  skill,  enterprise  and  energy  of  New  York 
merchants,  the  confidence  of  capitalists  in  New  York  merchants, 
the  various  facilities  for  trade  offered  by  New  York  merchants, 
enable  them  to  do  the  business  of  the  country  cheaper  and 
better  than  it  can  be  done  anywhere  else,  and  that  thus  they 
can  command  commerce,  and  need  not  petition  their  Legislature, 
or  appeal  to  mean  sectional  prejudices  to  obtain  it,  but  all 
imagine  it  is  by  some  shrewd  Yankee  trickery  it  is  done.  By 
the  bones  of  their  noble  fathers  they  will  set  their  faces  against 
it — and  their  faces  are  not  of  dough — so  they  bully  their  local 
merchants  into  buying  in  clearer  markets,  and  make  the  country 
tote  its  gold  on  to  Philadelphia  to  be  coined ;  and  their  conven- 
tions resolve  that  the  world  shall  come  to  Norfolk,  or  Eichmond, 
or  Smithtown,  and  that  no  more  cotton  shall  be  sent  to  England 
until  England  will  pay  a  price  for  it  that  shall  let  negroes  be 
worth  a  thousand  dollars  a  head,  &c,  &c,  &c. 

Then,  if  it  be  asked  why  Norfolk,  with  its  immense  natural 
advantages  for  commerce,  has  not  been  able  to  do  their  business 
for  them  as  well  as  New  York ;  or  why  Eichmond,  with  its  great 
natural  superiority  for   manufacturing,   has  not  prospered  like 


140  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

Glasgow,  or  Petersburg  like  Lowell — why  Virginia  is  not  like 
Pennsylvania,  or  Kentucky  like  Ohio  ? — they  will  perhaps  answer 
that  it  is  owing  to  the  peculiar  tastes  they  have  inherited ;  "  settled 
mainly  (as  was  Virginia)  by  the  sons  of  country  gentlemen,  who 
brought  the  love  of  country  life  with  them  across  the  Atlantic, 
and  infused  it  into  the  mass  of  the  population,  they  have  ever 
preferred  that  life,  and  the  title  of  country  gentleman,  implying 
the  possession  of  landed  estates,  has  always  been  esteemed  more 
honorable  than  any  other."*  It  is  simply  a  matter  of  taste — an 
answer  which  reminds  us  of  JEsop's  fox. 

Ask  any  honest  stranger  who  has  been  brought  into  intimate 
intercourse  for  a  short  time  Avith  the  people,  why  it  is  that  here 
has  been  stagnation,  and  there  constant,  healthy  progress,  and 
he  will  answer  that  these  people  are  less  enterprising,  energetic 
and  sensible  in  the  conduct  of  their  affairs — that  they  live  less  in 
harmony  with  the  laws  that  govern  the  accumulation  of  wealth 
than  those. 

Ask  him  how  this  difference  of  character  should  have  arisen, 
and  he  will  tell  you  it  is  not  from  the  blood,  but  from  the 
education  they  have  received ;  from  the  institutions  and  circum- 
stances they  have  inherited.  It  is  the  old,  fettered,  barbarian 
labor-system,  in  connection  with  which  they  have  been  brought 
up,  against  which  all  their  enterprise  must  struggle,  and  with  the 
chains  of  which  all  their  ambition  must  be  bound. 

This  conviction  I  find  to  be  universal  in  the  minds  of  strangers, 
and  it  is  forced  upon  one  more'  strongly  than  it  is  possible  to 
make  you  comprehend  by  a  mere  statement  of  isolated  facts. 
You  could  as  well  convey  an  idea  of  the  effect  of  mist  on  a 

*  Dr.  Little's  History  of  Eicbmond. 


VIRGINIA.  141 

landscape,  by  enumerating  the  number  of  particles  of  vapor  that 
obscure  it.  Give  Virginia  blood  fair  play,  remove  it  from  the 
atmosphere  of  slavery,  and  it  shows  no  lack  of  energy  and  good 
sense. 

It  is  strange  the  Virginians  dare  not  look  this  in  the  face. 
Strange  how  they  bluster  in  their  legislative  debates,  in  their 
newspapers,  and  in  their  bar-rooms,  about  the  "Yankees,"  and 
the  "  Yorkers,"  declaring  that  they  are  "  swindled  out  of  their 
legitimate  trade,"  when  the  simple  truth  is,  that  the  Northern 
merchants  do  that  for  them  that  they  are-  unable  to  do  for 
themselves.  As  well  might  the  Chinese  be  angry  with  us  for 
sending  our  clipper  ships  for  their  tea,  because  it  is  a  business 
that  would  be  more  "legitimately"  (however  less  profitably) 
carried  on  in  "junks." 

"  LEGITIMATE"    VIRGINIA    SEAMANSHIP. 

There's  a  yarn  I  have  heard  from  the  Staaten  Island  coasters, 
who  run  down  to  the  capes  of  Virginia  for  oysters,  which  illus- 
trates admirably  how  Virginia  commerce  would  be  "  legitimately" 
carried  on,  that  is,  in  the  manner  naturally  resulting  from  her 
system. 

Among  the  largest  and  luckiest  of  the  Virginia  merchant- 
marine,  is  the  fine,  fast-sailing,  light-draft,  putty-bottomed, 
packet-sloop,  the  Abstraction.  The  "  old  Ab"  was  formerly 
owned  and  commanded  by  Captain  Jerry  S.,  and  was  manned 
by  one  black  boy,  sixty  years  old,  named  Mopus,  and  commonly 
called  Uncle  Mopus.  Mopus  was  a  slave,  and  Captain  Jerry 
had  bought  him  with  the  sloop. 

Mopus  was  a  proper  slave,  patient,  meek,  stupid,  and 
stubborn, — a   talking   donkey.      He   never   had    been    taught 


142  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

to  read  or  to  comprehend  figures.  He  could  not  understand 
the  dial,  and  the  binnacle-compass  was  a  sort  of  fetish  to 
him ;  the  mystery  of  which  he  was  too  humble  to  desire  to 
penetrate.  He  piously  left  these  great  things  in  the  hands 
of  his  owner,  and  resigned  himself  to  the  will  of  that  Provi- 
dence which  had  given  him  a  master  to  take  care  of  him, 
who  was  responsible  for  his  safety  and  profits,  as  well  as  the 
sloop's. 

This  resignation  and  faith  of  the  good  Mopus,  however,  often 
gave  Captain  Jerry  a  deal  of  trouble,  for  it  obliged  him  to  be 
nearly  always  on  deck  and  wide  awake,  and  he  sometimes  thought 
he  might  better  sell  Mopus,  and  buy  a  nigger  that  was  not  so 
good,  (Captain  Jerry,  as  I  heard  it,  used  to  put  in  a  word 
between  so  and  good,  and  bear  down  on  it,)  but  the  danger  that 
such  a  one  would  prove  entirely  reckless  of  all  moral  suggestions, 
as  smart  niggers  are  very  apt  to,  and  go  and  steal  himself, 
prevented  his  doing  so,  and  he  tried  to  make  the  best  of  Mopus' 
muscles,  and  to  supply  the  necessary  brain-power  for  the  sloop 
from  his  own  private  skull. 

One  night,  Captain  Jerry  having  been  up  all  the  previous 
night,  and  having  just  worked  the  sloop  out  of  Hampton  roads, 
against  wind  and  tide,  and  being  quite  overcome  with  fatigue, 
thought  he  might  venture  to  trust  Mopus  with  the  helm  for  a 
few  hours,  the  sloop's  course  being  now  due  north,  up  Chesapeake 
bay,  wind  light  and  quartering,  a  clear  sky,  and  nothing  in  the 
way  for  fifty  miles. 

Mopus  knew  the  North  Star  very  well,  as  niggers  generally  do, 
and  telling  him  to  keep  the  bow-sprit  pointing  straight  at  it,  and 
not  to  disturb  him  until  he  saw  land  to  starboard,  Captain  Jerry 
put  out  the  binnacle-light  to  save  oil,  and  went  beloWc 


VIRGINIA.  143 

Captain  Jerry  had  the  habit,  which  small-craft  men  are  apt 
to  get,  of  consulting  aloud  with  himself.  No  sooner  had  he 
closed  the  companion  scuttle  than  Mopus,  with  head  to  the 
stove  pipe,  heard — "  Moon  fulled  Thursday — slack  Avater  at 
six — North  Star — that'll  do  till  daylight  sartain — due  North — 
Tangier  island — not  afore  meridian — can't  go  wrong  till  arter 
daylight,  no  how — good  snooze  this  time — go  in — off  boots." 

Mope  was  a  capital  helmsman ;  and  for  two  hours,  while  the 
breeze  held,  he  kept  on  a  bee-line  to  the  northward.  Then  it 
fell  calm ;  and  then  there  came  little  catspaws  from  northwest, 
and  Mope,  after  giving  a  pull  of  the  main-sheet,  left  the  helm  a 
minute  to  flatten  the  jib.  While  he  was  forward,  a  flaw  from  the 
northeast  took  him  all  aback.  Belaying  jib-sheet,  he  came  aft, 
and  put  helm  up  to  wear  round.  Just  as  he  jibed,  came  another 
flaw  from  the  southeast,  and  a  pretty  smart  one.  Mope  met  it, 
trimmed  close,  and  seeing  it  was  going  to  be  steady,  left  the 
helm  again,  and  shoved  down  the  centre  board.  Then  he  went 
to  the  hatchway  and  got  his  coat,  after  which  he  took  a  pull  at 
the  scuttle-butt,  and  struck  a  light  for  a  smoke. 

All  this  time  old  Abby,  with  her  head  southeast,  was  shaking 
like  a  nail-mill.  Mope  finally  hauled  the  jib  up  to  port,  till  the 
mainsail  filled,  then  took  the  helm  again,  and  kept  her  rap  full 
heading  south,  but  running  off  to  the  westward,  now  and  then, 
in  search  for  the  North  Star,  which,  as  he  could  not  see  it  any- 
where else,  he  thought  for  a  long  time  must  have  got  behind  the 
mainsail. 

He  had  smoked  out  two  pipes  before  he  found  it,  and  then  it 
was  right  over  the  stern,  which  at  first  struck  him  as  a  singular 
circumstance.  There  it  Avas,  "  pointers  and  all ;"  he  could  not 
be  mistaken.     But  how  did  it  get  there  ? 


144  OUR    SLAVE     STATES 

Mope  pondered  over  it  for  two  pipes  more,  all  the  while  giving 
her  a  good  fall  and  nothing  off.  He  was  at  first  inclined  to 
treat  it  as  a  mystery;  but  when,  about  two  o'clock,  the  moon 
rose,  he  grew  bold,  knotted  his  eyebrows,  clenched  his  teeth, 
took  off  his  tarpaulin,  and  struck  his  reflective  organs  with  his 
clenched  fist. 

At  length  the  problem  was  solved,  and  his  lips  trembled  and 
gathered  inward  and  puckered  back  with  that  pleasure  which 
niggers,  in  common  with  human  beings,  enjoy,  when  they  are 
conscious  of  having  acquitted  themselves  well  of  a  trying  and 
honorable  responsibility.  He  immediately  hauled  the  boom 
down  close  to  the  taffrail ;  he  went  forward,  and  belayed  the 
jib  to  windward,  lighted  his  pipe  again,  and  kept  a  good  look- 
out till,  as  day  broke,  he  made  land  to  starboard,  just  as  he 
expected ; — land  to  starboard  and — why  didn't  he  see  it  be- 
fore ? — a  light  right  ahead,  and  not  very  far  ahead  either. 

"All  right,"  thought  Mopus,  "daylight,  humph!  let  an  old 
nigger  alone  to  find  the  way  to  the  North;"  and  he  let  the  jib 
draw  away,  went  aft,  took  the  helm  and  called  the  skipper. 

The  skipper  turned  out : 

"Hallo,  uncle,  close  hauled?  Wind's  come  out  o'  norrard, 
has  it  ?     Why,  Mopus  !  why !  what  the  devil — what  light's  that? 

Why,  Mope!    why  you ■ Where  you  been  taking  the  sloop 

to  now,  you  black  rascal !  here's  the  North  Star  over  the  stara  !" 

"  Oh  yes,  massa,  past  de  Norf  Star  an  hour  ago ;  all  right, 
sar,  here's  de  land  right  off  here  to  luward.  Made  a  fine  run, 
sar.  Oh !  I  knows  how  to  fotch  'em  along,  I  does  myself,  ha ! 
ha!  ha!     Takes  old  Mope  arter  all,  don't  it?  ha!  ha!  ha!" 

"  Ye-es  (through  his  teeth)  .  mighty  fine  run !  Old  Point,  by 
the  blood  of  Pocahontas !  just  where  I'd  got  her  last  night  at 


VIRGINIA.  145 

sunset! — you  grinnin'  catamount!  Takes  old  Mope!  You 
bloody  old  cuss !  I'll  sell  you  for  a  chaw  of  tobacco  to  the  first 
white  man  that  '11  take  you  off  my  hands." 

Incidents,  trifling  in  themselves,  constantly  betray  to  a  stran- 
ger the  bad  economy  of  using  enslaved  servants.  The  catastro- 
phe of  one  such  occurred  since  I  began  to  write  this  letter.  I 
ordered  a  fire  to  be  made  in  my  room,  as  I  was  going  out  this 
morning.  On  my  return,  I  found  a  grand  fire — the  room  door 
having  been  closed  and  locked  upon  it,  and,  by  the  way,  I  had 
to  obtain  assistance  to  open  it,  the  lock  being  "  out  of  order.'' 
Just  now,  while  I  was  writing,  down  tumbled  upon  the  floor,  and 
rolled  away  close  to  the  valance  of  the  bed,  half  a  hod-full  of 
ignited  coal,  which  had  been  so  piled  up  on  the  diminutive  grate, 
and  left  without  a  fender  or  any  guard,  that  this  result  was  almost 
inevitable.  If  I  had  not  returned  at  the  time  I  did,  the  house 
would  have  been  fired,  and  probably  an  incendiary  charged  with 
it,  while  some  Northern  Insurance  Company  made  good  the  loss 
to  the  owner.  And  such  carelessness  of  servants  you  have  mo- 
mentarily to  notice. 

But  the  constantly-occurring  delays,  and  the,  waste  of  time 
and  labor  that  you  encounter  everywhere,  are  most  annoying 
and  provoking  to  a  stranger.  The  utter  want  of  system  and 
order,  almost  essential,  as  it  would  appear,  where  slaves  are  your 
instruments,  is  amazing — and  when  you  are  not  in  haste,  often 
amusing.  At  a  hotel,  for  instance,  you  go  to  your  room  and  find 
no  conveniences  for  washing ;  ring  and  ring  again,  and  hear  the 
office-keeper  ring  again  and  again.  At  length  two  servants  ap- 
pear together  at  your  door,  get  orders,  and  go  away.  A  quarter  of 
an  hour  afterwards,  perhaps,  one  returns  with  a  pitcher  of  water, 

but  no  towels  ;  and  so  on.    Yet  as  the  servants  are  attentive  and 
7 


146  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

anxious  to  please  (expecting  to  be  "  remembered "  when  you 
leave),  it  only  results  from  the  want  of  system  and  order. 

Until  the  negro  is  big  enough  for  his  labor  to  be  palpably 
profitable  to  his  master,  he  has  no  training  to  application  or 
method,  but  only  to  idleness  and  carelessness.  Before  the  chil- 
dren arrive  at  a  working  age,  they  hardly  come  under  the  notice 
of  their  owner.  An  inventory  of  them  is  taken  on  the  plantation 
at  Christmas ;  and  a  planter  told  me  that  he  had  sometimes 
had  them  brought  in  at  twelve  or  thirteen  years  old,  that 
had  escaped  the  vigilance  of  the  overseer  up  to  that  age. 
The  only  whipping  of  slaves  that  I  have  seen  in  Virginia, 
has  been  of  these ,  wild,  lazy  children,  as  they  are  being 
broke  in  to  work.  It  is  at  this  moment  going  on  in  the 
yard  beneath  my  window.  They  cannot  be  depended  upon 
a  minute  out  of  sight. 

You  will  see  how  difficult  it  would  be,  if  it  were  attempted,  to 
eradicate  the  indolent,  careless,  incogitant  habits  so  formed  in 
youth.  But  it  is  not  systematically  attempted,  and  the  in- 
fluences that  continue  to  act  upon  a  slave  in  the  same  direction, 
cultivating  every  quality  at  variance  with  industry,  precision, 
forethought,  and  providence,  are  innumerable. 

It  is  impossible  that  the  habits  of  the  whole  community  should 
not  be  influenced  by,  and  be  made  to  accommodate  to  these 
habits  of  its  laborers'.  It  irresistibly  affects  the  whole  industrial 
character  of  the  people.  You  may  see  it  in  the  habits  and  man- 
ners of  the  free  white  mechanics  and  trades-people.  All  of  these 
must  have  dealings  or  be  in  competition  Avith  slaves,  and  so  have 
their  standard  of  excellence  made  low,  and  become  accustomed 
to,  until  they  are  content  with  slight,  false,  unsound  workman- 
ship.    You  notice  in  all  classes,  vagueness  in  ideas  of  cost  and 


VIRGINIA.  147 

value,  and  injudicious  and  unnecessary  expenditure  of  labor  by 
a  thoughtless  manner  of  setting  about  work.* 

I  had  an  umbrella  broken.  I  noticed  it  as  I  was  going  out 
from  my  hotel  during  a  shower,  and  stepped  into  an  adjoining 
locksmith's  to  have  it  repaired.  He  asked  where  he  should  send 
it  when  he  had  done  it.  "  I  intended  to  wait  for  it,"  I  answered ; 
"how  long  is  it  going  to  take  you,  and  how  much  shall  you 
charge  ?" 

"I  can't  do  it  in  less  than  half  an  hour,  sir,  and  it  will  be 
worth  a  quarter." 

"  I  shouldn't  think  it  need  take  you  so  long,  it  is  merely  a 
rivet  to  be  tightened." 

"  I  shall  have  to  take  it  all  to  pieces,  and  it  will  take  me  all  of 
half  an  hour." 

"  I  don't  think  you  need  take  it  to  pieces." 

"  Yes,  I  shall — there's  no  other  way  to  do  it." 

"  Then,  as  I  can't  well  wait  so  long,  I  will  not  trouble  you 
with  it;"  and  I  went  into  the  hotel,  and  with  the  fire-poker  did 
the  job  myself,  in  less  than  a  minute,  as  well  as  he  could  have 
done  it  in  a  week,  and  wrent  on  my  way,  saving  half  an  hour  and 
quarter  of  a  dollar,  like  a  "  Yankee." 

Virginians  laugh  at  us  for  such  things :  but  it  is  because  they 
are  indifferent  to  these  fractions,  or,  as  they  say,  above  regard- 
ing them,  that  they  cannot  do  their  own  business  with  the  rest 
of  the  world,  and  all  their  commerce,  as  they  are  constantly 
and  most  absurdly  complaining,  only  goes  to  enrich  Northern 
men.  A  man  forced  to  labor  under  their  system  is  morally 
driven  to  indolence,  carelessness,  indifference  to  the  results  of 

*  A  ship's  officer  told  me  that  he  had  noticed  that  it  took  just  about  three 
times  as  long  to  have  the  same  repairs  made  in  Norfolk  that  it  did  in  New  York. 


148  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

skill,  heedlessness,  inconstancy  of  purpose,  improvidence,  and 
extravagance.  Precisely  the  opposite  qualities  are  those  which 
are  encouraged,  and  inevitably  developed  in  a  man  who  has  to 
make  his  living,  and  earn  all  his  comfort  by  his  voluntarily- 
directed  labor.  These  opposite  qualities  are  those  which  are 
essentially  necessary  to  the  success  of  an  adventurer  in  com- 
merce. The  commercial  success  of  the  free  states  is  the 
offspring  of  their  voluntary  labor  system.  The  inability  of  the 
Virginians  to  engage  in  commerce  is  the  result  of  their  system 
of  involuntary  servitude.  The  condition  of  the  laborers  pre- 
determines the  condition  of  all  the  people. 


GOSPORT. 

Several  ships  were  here,  under  orders,  waiting  for  crews; 
with  the  rest,  the  Powkattan  steam-frigate,  among  whose 
officers  I  found  some  acquaintances.  What  soft  of  hands 
they  had  to  take,  and  how  difficult  they  found  the  duty  of 
efficiently  commanding  them,  may  be  imagined  from  the  dis- 
graceful fact,  that,  at  that  time,  but  twelve  dollars  a  month 
was  allowed  by  Government  to  be  paid  for  the  best  men 
for  the  national  service,  while  merchantmen  were  paying 
twenty-five  dollars  for  common  able  seamen ;  and  yet,  be- 
cause, when  under  these  circumstances,  the  crews  obtained 
were  not  smart,  clean,  sober,  docile,  and  contented,  I  heard 
officers  ascribe  their  difficulties  to  the  disuse  of  the  cat  and 
the  old  terrifying  system  of  discipline. 

The  United  States  Navy  should  be  a  school  of  the  utmost 
excellence  of  seamanship,  not  a  refuge  for  irreclaimable  sots, 
loafers,  and  ruffians,  who  cannot,  or  dare  not,  take  employ- 
ment elsewhere  at  the  market  rate  of  wages. 


VIRGINIA.  149 

I,  as  a  one-twenty-three-millionth  proprietor  of  it,  wonder 
if  it  would  not  be  better  policy  to  go  into  exactly  the  oppo- 
site extreme,  and,  by  paying  the  best  wages,  get  the  best 
men — the  highest  priced  labor  in  open  market  is  usually 
believed  to  be  the  cheapest. 

And  I  wonder  if  it  would  not  be  possible  to  obtain  men 
for  the  labor  of  ships,  as  well  as  for  any  other  labor,  who 
would  always  perform  the  services  required  of  them  heartily, 
promptly  and  fully,  as  an  honest  return  for  their  wages  and 
rations ;  who  would  obey  orders,  not  like  whipped  curs  and 
cowed  slaves,  but  as  free  men,  and  brave  men,  and  wise  men, 
with  a  republican  respect  for  right  laws,  and  a  sensible  un- 
derstanding of  the  fit  division  of  responsibility  between  them 
and  their  officers.  I  fear  not,  unless  some  thorough,  com- 
prehensive, and  generously-directed  educational  department  shall 
be  adopted  as  a  permanent,  and  indivisible  part  of  our  naval 
system. 


THE    DISMAL    SWAMP. 

The  "  Great  Dismal  Swamp,"  together  with  the  smaller 
"  Dismals"  (for  so  the  term  is  used  here),  of  the  same  cha- 
racter, along  the  North  Carolina  Coast,  have  hitherto  been 
of  considerable  commercial  importance  as  furnishing  a  large 
amount  of  lumber,  and  especially  of  shingles  for  our  North- 
ern use  as  well  as  for  exportation.  The  district  from  which 
this  commerce  proceeds  is  all  a  vast  quagmire,  the  soil  being 
entirely  composed  of.  decayed  vegetable  fibre,  saturated  and 
surcharged  with  water;  yielding  or  quaking  on  the  surface  to 
the  tread  of  a  man,  and  a  large  part  of  it,  during  most  of 
the  year,  half  inundated  with  standing  pools.     It  is  divided 


150  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

by  creeks  and  water-veins,  and  in  the  centre  is  a  pond  six 
miles  long  and  three  broad,  the  shores  of  which,  strange  to 
say,  are  at  a  higher  elevation  above  the  sea,  than  any  other 
part  of  the  swamp,  and  yet  are  of  the  same  miry  consistency. 

The  Great  Dismal  is  about  thirty  miles  long  and  ten 
miles  wide  on  an  average ;  its  area  about  200,000  acres. 
And  the  little  Dismal,  Aligator,  Catfish,  Green,  and  other 
smaller  swamps,  on  the  shores  of  Albemarle  and  Pamlico,  con- 
tain over  2,000,000  acres.  A  considerable  part  of  this  is 
the  property  of  the  State  of  North  Carolina,  and  the  proceeds 
of  sales  from  it  form  the  chief  income  of  the  department  of 
education  of  that  Commonwealth. 

An  excellent  canal,  six  feet  in  depth,  passes  for  more  than 
twenty  miles  through  the  swamp,  giving  passage  not  only  to 
the  lumber  collected  from  it,  but  to  a  large  fleet  of  coasting 
vessels  engaged  in  the  trade  of  the  Albemarle  and  Pamlico 
Sounds,  and  making  a  safe  outlet  towards  New  York  for  all 
the  corn,  cotton,  tar,  turpentine,  etc.,  produced  in  the  greater 
part  of  the  eastern  section  of  North  Carolina,  which  is  thus 
brought  to  market  without  encountering  the  extremely  ha- 
zardous passage  outside,  from  Cape  Hatteras  to  Cape  Henry. 
This  canal  is  fed  by  the  water  of  the  pond  in  the  centre  of 
the  swamp,  its  summit-level  being  many  feet  below  it."* 

*  Of  the  main  products  of  the  country,  the  annual  freightage  on  the  Dis- 
mal Swamp  Canal  is  about  as  follows ; 

Shingles 24,000,000 

Staves 6,000,000 

Plank  and  scantling,  cubic  feet             .            .  125,000 

Ship  timber    ......  40,000 

Cotton  bales         .  4,500 

Shad  and  herring,  barrels    ....  50,000 

Naval  stores,  barrels       ....  30,000 


VIRGINIA.  151 

Much  9f  the  larger  part  of  the  "  Great  Dismal"  was  origi- 
nally covered  by  a  heavy  forest  growth.  All  the  trees  indi- 
genous to  the  neighboring  country  I  found  still  extensively 
growing,  and  of  full  size  within  its  borders.  But  the  main 
production,  and  that  which  has  been  of  the  greatest  value, 
has  been  of  cypress  and  juniper ;  (the  latter  commonly 
known  as  white  cedar,  at  the  North).  From  these  two,  im- 
mense quantities  of  shingles  have  been  made.  The  cypress 
also  affords  ship-timber,  now  in  great  demand,  and  a  great 
many  rough  poles  of  the  juniper,  under  the  name  of  "  cedar- 
rails,"  are  sent  to  New  York  and  other  ports,  as  fencing 
material,  (generally  selling  at  seven  cents  a  rail,)  for  the 
farms  of  districts  that  have  been  deprived  of  their  own  na- 
tural wood  by  the  extension  of  tillage  required  by  the  wants 
of  neighboring  towns  or  manufactories. 

The  swamp  belongs  to  a  great  many  proprietors.  Most 
of  them  own  only  a  few  acres,  but  some  possess  large  tracts 
and  use  a  heavy  capital  in  the  business.  One,  whose  ac- 
quaintance I  made,  employed  more  than  a  hundred  hands 
in  getting  out  shingles  alone.  The  value  of  the  swamp  land 
varies  with  the  wood  upon  it,  and  the  facility  with  which  it 
can  be  got  off,  from  12i-  cents  to  $10  an  acre.  It  is  made 
passable    in   any   desired   direction   in   which   trees   grow,    by 


Spirits  turpentine,  barrels    .  >  .  700 

Bacon,  cwts.         .....  5,000 

Lard,  kegs     .....:  1,300 

Maize,  bushels      .....  2,000,000 

Wheat,  bushels         .....  30,000 

Peas,  bushels       .....  25,000 

The  canal  was  made  with  the  assistance  of  the  National  Government  and 
the  State  of  Virginia,  who  are  still  the  largest  owners.  It  is  admirably  con- 
structed, repairs  are  light,  and  it  is  a  good  six  per  cent,  stock. 


152  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

laying  logs,  cut  in  lengths  of  eight  or  ten  feet,  parallel  and 
against  each  other  on  the  surface  of  the  soil,  or  "  sponge," 
as  it  is  called.  Mules  and  oxen  are  used  to  some  extent 
upon  these  roads,  but  transportation  is  mainly  by  hand  to 
the  creeks,  or  to  ditches  communicating  with  them  or  the  canal. 

Except  by  those  log-roads,  the  swamp  is  scarcely  passable 
in  many  parts,  owing  not  only  to  the  softness  of  the  sponge, 
but  to  the  obstruction  caused  by  innumerable  shrubs,  vines, 
creepers  and  briars,  which  often  take  entire  possession  of 
the  surface,  forming  a  dense  brake  or  jungle.  This,  how- 
ever, is  sometimes  removed  by  fires,  which  of  late  years 
have  been  frequent  and  very  destructive  to  the  standing 
timber.  The  most  common  shrubs .  are  various  smooth-leafed 
evergreens,  and  their  dense,  bright,  glossy  foliage,  was  exceed- 
ingly beautiful  in  the  wintry  season  of  my  visit.  There  is 
a  good  deal  of  game  in  the  swamp — bears  and  wild  cats  are 
sometimes  shot,  raccoons  and  opossums  are  plentiful,  and 
deer  are  found  in  the  drier  parts  and  on  the  outskirts.  The 
fishing,  in  the  interior  waters,  is  also  said  to  be  excellent. 

Nearly  all  the  valuable  trees  have  now  been  cut  off  from  the 
swamp.  The  whole  ground  has  been  frequently  gone  over,  the 
best  timber  selected  and  removed  at  each  time,  leaving  the 
remainder  standing  thinly,  so  that  the  wind  has  more  effect  upon 
it ;  and  much  of  it,  from  the  yielding  of  the  soft  soil,  is  uproote'd 
or  broken  off.  The  fires  have  also  greatly  injured  it.  The 
principal  stock,  now  worked  into  shingles,  is  obtained  from 
leneath  the  surface — old  trunks  that  have  been  preserved  by  the 
wetness  of  the  soil,  and  that  are  found  by  "  sounding"  with 
poles,  and  raised  with  hooks  or  pikes  by  the  negroes. 

The  quarry  is  giving  out,  however,  and  except   that  lumber, 


VIRGINIA.  153 

and  especially  shingles,  have  been  in  great  demand  at  high  prices 
of  late,  the  business  would  be  almost  at  an  end.  As  it  is,  the 
principal  men  engaged  in  it  are  turning  their  attention  to  other 
and  more  distant  supplies.  A  very  large  purchase  had  been 
made  by  one  company  in  the  Florida  everglades,  and  a  schooner, 
with  a  gang  of  hands  trained  in  the  "  Dismals,"  was  about  to 
sail  from  Deep-creek,  for  this  new  field  of  operations. 

SLAVE-LUMBERMEN. 

The  labor  in  the  swamp  is  almost  entirely  done  by  slaves ; 
and  the  way  in  which  they  are  managed  is  interesting  and 
instructive.  They  are  mostly  hired  by  their  employers  at  a 
rent,  perhaps  of  one  hundred  dollars  a  year  for  each,  paid  to 
their  owners.  They  spend  one  or  two  months  of  the  winter — 
when  it  is  too  wet  to  work  in  the  swamp — at  the  residence  of 
their  master.  At  this  period  little  or  no  work  is  required  of 
them ;  their  time  is  their  own,  and  if  they  can  get  any  employ- 
ment, they  will  generally  keep  for  themselves  what  they  are 
paid  for  it.  When  it  is  sufficiently  dry — usually  early  in 
February — they  go  into  the  swamp  in  gangs,  each  gang  under  a 
white  overseer.  Before  leaving,  they  are  all  examined  and 
registered  at  the  Court-house,  and  "  passes,"  good  for  a.  year, 
are  given  them,  in  which  their  features  and  the  marks  upon 
their  persons  are  minutely  described.  Each  man  is  furnished 
with  a  quantity  of  provisions  and  clothing,  of  which,  as  well  as 
of  all  that  he  afterwards  draws  from  the  stock  in  the  hands 
of  the  overseer,  an  exact  account  is  kept. 

LIFE    IN    THE    SWAMP SLAVES    QUASI   FREEMEN. 

Arrived  at  their  destination,  a  rude  camp  is  made,  huts  of 
7* 


154  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

logs,  poles,  shingles,  and  boughs  being  built,  usually  upon  some 
place  where  shingles  have  been  worked  before,  and  in  which  the 
shavings  have  accumulated  in  small  hillocks  upon  the  soft  sur 
face  of  the  ground. 

The  slave  lumberman  then  lives  measurably  as  a  free  man ; 
hunts,  fishes,  eats,  drinks,  smokes  and  sleeps,  plays  and  works, 
each  when  and  as  much  as  he  pleases.  It  is  only  required  of  him 
that  he  shall  have  made,  after  half  a  year  has  passed,  such  a 
quantity  of  shingles  as  shall  be  worth  to  his  master  so  much 
money  as  is  paid  to  his  owner  for  his  services,  and  shall  refund 
the  value  of  the  clothing  and  provisions  he  has  required. 

No  "driving"  at  his  work  is  attempted  or  needed.  No  force 
is  used  to  overcome  the  indolence  peculiar  to  the  negro.  The 
overseer  merely  takes  a  daily  account  of  the  number  of  shingles 
each  man  adds  to  the  general  stock,  and  employs  another  set  of 
hands,  with  mules,  to  draw  them  to  a  point  from  which  they  can 
be  shipped,  and  where  they  are,  from  time  to  time,  called  for  by  a 
schooner. 

At  the  end  of  five  months  the  gang  returns  to  dry-land,  and  a 
statement  of  account  from  the  overseer's  book  is  drawn  up,  some- 
thing like  the  following : 

Sam   Bo   to   John   Doe,  Dr. 

Feb.  1.  To  clothing  (outfit) $5  00 

Mar.  10.  To  clothing,  as  per  overseer's  account,  2  25 

Feb.  1.  To  bacon  and  meal  (outfit) 19  00 

July    1.  To  stores  drawn  in  swamp,  as  per 

overseer's   account, 4  75 

July    1.  To  half-yearly  hire,  paid  his  owner--  50  00 

$81  00 
Per    Contra,    Cr. 
July    1.  By  10,000  shingles,  as  per  overseer's 

account,   10c 100  00 

Balance  due  Sambo $19  00 


VIRGINIA.  155 

which  is  immediately  paid  him,  and  which,  together  with  the 
proceeds  of  sale  of  peltry  which  he  has  got  while  in  the 
swamp,  he  is  always  allowed  to  make  use  of  as  his  own.  ■  No 
liquor  is  sold  or  served  to  the  negroes  in  the  swamp,  and,  as 
their  first  want  when  they  come  out  of  it  is  an  excitement, 
most  of  their  money  goes  to  the  grog-shops. 

After  a  short  vacation,  the  whole  gang  is  taken  in  the 
schooner  to  spend  another  five  months  in  the  swamp  as  before. 
If  they  are  good  hands  and  work  steadily,  they  will  commonly 
be  hired  again,  and  so  continuing,  will  spend  most  of  their  lives 
at  it.  They  almost  invariably  have  excellent  health,  as  do 
also  the  white  men  engaged  in  the  business.  They  all  con- 
sider the  water  of  "  the  Dismals"  to  have  a  medicinal  virtue, 
and  quite  probably  it  is  a  mild  tonic.  It  is  greenish  in  color, 
and  I  thought  I  detected  a  slightly  resinous  taste  upon  first 
drinking  it.  Upon  entering  the  swamp  also,  an  agreeable 
resinous  odor,  resembling  that  of  a  hemlock  forest,  was 
perceptible. 

THE    EFFECT    OF   PAYING  -WAGES    TO    SLAVES. 

The  negroes  working  in  the  swamp  were  more  sprightly  and 
straight-forward  in  their  manner  and  conversation  than  any 
field-hand  plantation-negroes  that  I  saw  at  the  South ;  two  or 
three  of  their  employers  with  whom  I  conversed  spoke  well  of 
them,  as  compared  with  other  slaves,  and  made  no  complaints  of 
"rascality"  or  laziness. 

One  of  those  gentlemen  told  me  of  a  remarkable  case  of 
providence  and  good  sense  in  a  negro  that  he  had  employed  in 
the  swamp  for  many  years.  He  was  so  trust-worthy,  that  he 
had  once  let  him  go  to  New  York  as  cook  of  a  lumber-schooner, 


156  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

when  h  3  could,  if  he  had  chosen  to  remain  there,  have  easily 
escaped  from  slavery. 

Knowing  that  he  must  have  accumulated  considerable  money, 
his  employer  suggested  to  him  that  he  might  buy  his  freedom,  and 
he  immediately  determined  to  do  so.  But  when,  on  applying  to  his 
owner,  he  was  asked  $500  for  himself,  a  price  which,  considering 
he  was  an  elderly  man,  he  thought  too  much,  he  declined  the 
bargain ;  shortly  afterwards,  however,  he  came  to  his  employer 
again,  and  said  that  although  he  thought  his  owner  was  mean  to 
set  so  high  a  price  upon  him,  he  had  been  thinking  that  if  he 
was  to  be  an  old  man  he  would  rather  be  his  own  master,  and  if 
he  did  not  live  long,  his  money  would  not  be  of  any  use  to  him 
at  any  rate,  and  so  he  had  concluded  he  would  make  the  purchase. 

He  did  so,  and  upon  collecting  the  various  sums  that  he  had 
loaned  to  white  people  in  the  vicinity,  he  was  found  to  have 
several  hundred  dollars  more  than  was  necessary.  With  the 
surplus,  he  paid  for  his  passage  to  Liberia,  and  bought  a  hand- 
some outfit.  "When  he  was  about  to  leave,  my  informant  had 
made  him  a  present,  and,  in  thanking  him  for  it,  the  free  man 
had  said  that  the.  first  thing'  he  should  do,  on  reaching  Liberia, 
would  be  to  learn  to  wTrite,  and,  as  soon  as  he  could,  he  would 
write  to  him  how  he  liked  the  country  :  he  had  been  gone 
yet  scarce  a  year,  and  had  not  been  heard  from. 


AGRICULTUJRAL    VALUE    OF    THE    SWAMP   LAND. 

When  it  is  no  longer  found  profitable  to  get  lumber  out  of 
these  swamps,  they  will  be  dead  property,  as  little  or  no  large 
wood  is  growing  to  supply  the  place  of  that  taken  off,  except  in 
the  drier  parts,  where  pines  come  up,  as  on  "  old-fields."     It  is 


VIRGINIA.  157 

probable  that  some  extensive  soheme  of  draining  and  reclaiming 
tbem  will  eventually  be  adopted.  I  am  aware  of  but  a  single 
attemj)t,  as  yet,  to  cultivate  the  sponge  or  true  swamp  soil. 
This  was  made  by  a  Mr.  Wallace,  on  the  northeast  border  of 
the  Great  Dismal.  He  had,  with  creditable  spirit  and  skill, 
reclaimed  four  hundred  acres.  Having  a  sufficient  outfall,  he 
cuts  wide  drains  parallel  to  each  other,  and  about  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  yards  apart.  These  serve,  at  first,  to  float  away, 
for  market,  all  the  timber  of  value  left  on  the  tract,  as  well  as  to 
draw  the  water  from  the  surface.  The  ground  is  then  grubbed, 
as  much  as  it  is  thought  necessary,  and  the  stumps  and  worth- 
less logs  burnt.  After  cultivation,  the  soil  is  almost  an  impal- 
pable powder,  the  foot  sinks  to  theiancle )in  crossing  it,  and  it 
rises  in  clouds  of  dust,  when  disturbed  in  a  dry  season.  It  is, 
of  course,  easy  of  cultivation,  and  is  very  productive  in  corn  and 
potatoes — the  only  crops  of  which  Mr.  W.  had  yet  made  much 
trial. 

Mr.  W.  told  me  that  he  had  sold,  during  the  previous  summer, 
two  thousand  one  hundred  barrels  of  potatoes,  which  were  pro- 
duced on  forty  acres,  and  were  taken  by  contract  and  delivered 
at  Norfolk,  by  middlemen  for  the  New  York  market,  at  four 
dollars  a  barrel.  Thus  the  return  from  forty  acres  was  over  eight 
thousand  dollars,  and  this  without  any  expenditure  for  manure 
and  with  very  light  cultivation.  In  New  York,  the  potatoes 
sold  readily,  early  in  the  season,  at  from  five  to  ten  dollars  a 
barrel. 

Land  of  this  description,  thus  managed,  can  be  bought,  in  its 
unreclaimed  state,  at  from  one  to  five  dollars  an  acre.  The 
success  of  Mr.  Wallace  has  somewhat  increased  the  value  of  it, 
in  his  neighborhood.     He  reckons  that  the  cost  of  reclaiming 


158  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

and  fitting  it  entirely,  in  the  manner  that  his  experience  leads 
him  to  think  most  profitable,  would  he  fifty  dollars  an  acre. 
From  this  is  to  he  deducted  the  value  of  timber  obtained 
from  it. 

Persons  moving  here  from  the  North,  will  be  very  subject  to 
bilious  fever  during  the  fall  months ;  by  prudence  it  may  be 
partially  escaped,  but  the  danger  is  a  permanent  one  at  that 
season.  It  is  not  often  fatal,  but  probably  has  a  ruinous  effect 
upon  the  general  constitution. 


THE    "TRUCK"    BUSINESS    OF    NORFOLK. 

The  market-gardens  at  Norfolk — which  have  been  profitably 
supplying  New  York  markets  with  poor  early  vegetables,  and 
half-hardy  luxuries  for  several  years  past — do  not  differ  at  all 
from  market-gardens  elsewhere.  They  are  situated  in  every 
direction  for  many  miles  from  the  city,  offering  a  striking  con- 
trast, in  all  respects,  to  the  large,  old-fashioned  Virginian  farms, 
among  which  they  are  scattered. 

On  one  of  the  latter,  of  over  a  thousand  acres,  a  friend  told 
me  he  had  seen  the  negroes  moving  long,  strawy  manure  with 
shovels,  and  upon  inquiry  found  there  was  not  a  dung-fork  on 
the  place. 

The  soil  is  a  poor  sandy  loam,  and  manure  is  brought  by 
shipping  from  Baltimore,  as  well  as  from  the  nearer  towns,  to 
enrich  it.  The  proprietors  of  the  market-gardens  are  nearly  all 
from  New  Jersey,  and  brought  many  of'  their  old  white  laborers 
with  them.  Except  at  picking-time,  when  everything  possessing 
fingers  is  in  demand,  they  do  not  often  employ  slaves. 

The  Norfolk  Argus  says  that,  from  about  the  20th  June  to 


VIRGINIA.  159 

the  20th  July,  from  2,000  to  2,500  barrels  of  potatoes  will  be 
shipped  daily  from  that  city  to  Philadelphia  and  New  York, 
together  with  800  to  500  barrels  of  cucumbers,  musk-melons,  etc. 

RUNAWAYS    IN    THE    SWAMP 

While  driving  in  a  chaise  from  Portsmouth  to  Deep-river,  I 
picked  up  on  the  road  a  jaded  looking  negro,  who  proved  to  be 
a  very  intelligent  and  good-natured  fellow.  His  account  of  the 
lumber  business,  and  of  the  life  of  the  lumbermen  in  the 
swamps,  in  answer  to  my  questions,,  was  clear  and  precise, 
and  was  afterwards  verified  by  information  obtained  from  his 
master. 

He  told  me  that  his  name  was  Joseph,  that  he  belonged  to  a 
church  in  one  of  the  inland  counties,  and  that  he  was  hired  out 
by  the  trustees  of  the  church  to  his  present  master.  He 
expressed  entire  contentment  with  his  lot,  but  showed  great 
unwillingness  to  be  sold  to  go  on  to  a  plantation.  He  liked  to 
"  mind  himself,"  as  he  did  in  the  swamps.  Whether  he 
would  still  more  prefer  to  be  entirely  his  own  master,  I  did  not 
ask. 

The  Dismal  Swamps  are  noted  places  of  refuge  for  runaway 
negroes.  They  were  formerly  peopled  in  this  way  much  more 
than  at  present ;  a  systematic  hunting  of  them  with  dogs  and 
guns  having  been  made  by  individuals  who  took  it  up  as  a 
business  about  ten  years  ago.  Children  were  born,  bred,  lived 
and  died  here.  Joseph  Church  told  me  he  had  seen  skeletons, 
and  had  helped  to  bury  bodies  recently  dead.  There  were 
people  in  the  swamps  still,  he  thought,  that  were  the  children  of 
runaways,  and  who  had  been  runaways  themselves  all  their  lives. 
What  a  life  it  must  be ;   born  outlaws ;   educated  self-stealers ; 


160  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

trained  from  infancy  to  be  constantly  in  dread  of  the  approach 
of  a  white  man  as  a  thing  more  fearful  than  wild-cats  or  serpents, 
or  even  starvation. 

There  can  be  but  few,  however,  if  any,  of  these  "  natives  "  left. 
They  cannot  obtain  the  means  of  supporting  life  without  coming 
often  either  to  the  outskirts  to  steal  from  the  plantations,  or  to 
the  neighborhood  of  the  camps  of  the  lumbermen.  They  depend 
much  upon  the  charity  or  the  wages  given  them  by  the  latter. 
The  poorer  white  men,  owning  small  tracts  of  the  swamps,  will 
sometimes  employ  them,  and  the  negroes  frequently.  In  the 
hands  of  either  they  are  liable  to  be  ■  betrayed  to  the  negro- 
hunters.  Joseph  said  that  they  had  huts  in  "back  places," 
hidden  by  bushes,  and  difficult  of  access ;  he  had,  apparently, 
been  himself  quite  intimate  with  them.  When  the  shingle 
negroes  employed  them,  he  told  me,  they  made  them  get  up 
logs  for  them,  and  would  give  them  enough  to  eat,  and  some 
clothes,  and  perhaps  two  dollars  a  month  in  money.  .But  some, 
when  they  owed  them  money,  would  betray  them,  instead  of 
paying  them. 

DISMAL    NIGGER   HUNTING. 

I  asked  if  they  were  ever  shot.  "  Oh,  yes,"  he  said,  "  when 
the  hunters  saw  a  runaway,  if  he  tried  to  get  from  them,  they 
would  call  out  to  him,  that  if  he  did  not  stop  they  would  shoot, 
and  if  he  did  not,  they  would  shoot,  and  sometimes  kill  him. 

"But  some  on  'em  would  rather  be  shot  than  be  took,  sir,"  he 
added,  simply. 

A  farmer  living  near  the  swamp  confirmed  this  account,  and 
said  he  knew  of  three  or  four  being  shot  in  one  day. 

No  particular  breed  of  dogs  is  needed  for  hunting  negroes : 


VIRGINIA.  161 

blood-hounds,  fox-hounds,  bull-dogs,  and  curs  were  used,*  and 
one  white  man  told  me  how  they  were  trained  for  it,  as  if  it  were 
a  common  or  notorious  practice.  They  are  shut  up  when  pup- 
pies, and  never  allowed  to  see  a  negro  except  while  training  to 
catch  him.  A  negro  is  made  to  run  from  them,  and  they  are 
encouraged  to  follow  him  until  he  gets  into  a  tree,  when  meat  is 
given  them.  Afterwards  they  learn  to  follow  any  particular 
negro  by  scent,  and  then  a  shoe  or  a  piece  of  clothing  is  taken 
off  a  negro,  and  they  learn  to  find  by  scent  who  it  belongs  to, 
and  to  tree  him,  etc.  I  don't  think  they  are  employed  in  the 
ordinary  driving  in  the  swamp,  but  only  to  overtake  some  par- 
ticular slave,  as  soon  as  possible  after  it  is  discovered  that  he  has 
fled  from  a  plantation.  Joseph  said  that  it  was  easy  for  the 
drivers  to  tell  a  fugitive  from  a  regularly  employed  slave  in  the 
swamps. 

"  How  do  they  know  them  V 
™  "  Oh,  dey  looks  strange" 

"How  do  you  mean?" 

"  Sheared  like,  you  know,  sir,  and  kind  'o  strange,  cause  dey 
hasn't  much  to  eat,  and  ain't  decent  [not  decently  clothed],  like 
we  is." 

When  the  hunters  take  a  negro  who  has  not  a  pass,  or  "  free 
papers,"  and  they  don't  know  whose  slave  he  is,  they  confine 
him  in  jail,  and  advertise  him.  If  no  one  claims  him  within  a 
year  he  is  sold  to  the  highest  bidder,  at  a  public  sale,  and  this 
sale  gives  title  in  law  against  any  subsequent  claimant. 

The  form  of  the  advertisements  used  in  such  cases  is  shown  by 

*  I  have  since  seen  a  pack  of  negro-dogs,  chained  in  couples,  and  probably 
going  to  the  field.  They  were  all  of  a  breed,  and  in  appearance  between  a 
Scotch  stag-hound  and  a  fox-hound. 


162  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

tlie  following,  which  are  cut  from  North  Carolina  newspapers,  pub- 
lished in  counties  adjoining  the  Dismals.  Such  advertisements 
are  quite  as  common  in  the  papers  of  many  parts  of  the  Slave 
States  as  those  of  horses  or  cattle  "  Taken  up  "  in  those  of  the 
North : 

¥AS  TAKEN  UP  and  committed  to  the  Jail  of  Halifax  County, 
on  the  26tli  day  of  May,  a  dark  colored  boy,  who  says  his 
name  is  Jordan  Artis.  Said  boy  says  he  was  born  free,  and  was 
bound  out  to  William  Beale,  near  Murfreesboro',  Hertford  County, 
N.  C,  and  is  now  21  years  of  age.  The  owner  is  requested  to  come 
forward,  prove  property,  pay  charges,  and  take  the  said  boy  away, 
within  the  time  prescribed  by  law ;  otherwise  he  will  be  dealt  with 
as  the  law  directs.  0.  P.  SHELL,  Jailer. 

Halifax  County,  N.  C,  June  8,  1855. 


TAKEN   UP, 

AND  COMMITTED  to  the  Jail  of  New  Hanover  County,  on  the 
5th  of  March,  1855,  a  Negro  Man,  who  says  his  name  is 
EDWARD  LLOYD.  Said  negro  is  about  35  or  40  years  old,  light 
complected,  5  f«et  9^  inches  high,  slim  built,  upper  fore  teeth  out ; 
says  he  is  a  Mason  by  trade,  that  he  is  free,  and  belongs  in  Alex- 
andria, Va.,  that  he  served  his  time  at  the  Mason  business  under 
Mr.  Wm.  Stuart,  of  Alexandria.  He  was  taken  up  and  committed 
as  a  runaway.  His  owner  is  notified  to  come  forward,  prove  prop- 
erty, pay  charges,  and  take  him  away,  or  he  will  be  dealt  with  as 
the  law  directs.  E.  D.  HALL,  Sheriff. 

In  the  same  paper  with  the  last  are  four  advertisements  of 
Eunaways  :  two  of  them,  as  specimens,  I  transcribe. 

$209    REWARD. 

RAN  AWAY  from  the  employ  of  Messrs.  Holmes  &  Brown,  on 
Sunday  night,  20th  inst.,  a  negro  man  named  YATNEY  or 
MEDICINE,  belonging  to  the  undersigned.  Said  boy  is  stout  built, 
about  5  feet  4  inches  high,  22  years  old,  and  dark  complected,  and 
has  the  appearance,  when  walking  slow,  of  one  leg  being  a  little 
shorter  than  the  other.  He  was  brought  from  Chapel  Hill,  and  is 
probably  lurking  either  in  the  neighborhood  of  that  place,  or 
Beatty's  Bridge,  in  Bladen  County. 

The  above  reward  will  be  paid  for  evidence  sufficient  to  convict 
any  white  person  of  harboring  him,  or  a  reward  of  $25  for  his  appre- 
hension and  confinement  in  any  Jail  in  the  State,  so  that  I  can  get 
him,  or  for  his  delivery  to  me  in  Wilmington. 

J.  T.  SCHONWALD. 


VIRGINIA.  163 

KTJNAWAY 

FROM  THE  SUBSCRIBER,  on  the  27th  of  May,  his  negro  boy 
ISOME.  Said  boy  is  about  21  years  of  age  ;  rather  light  com- 
plexion ;  very  coarse  hair  ;  weight  about  150;  hight  about  5  feet  6 
or  7  inches  ;  rather  pleasing  countenance  ;  quick  and  easy  spoken  ; 
rather  a  downcast  look.  It  is  thought  that  he  is  trying  to  make 
his  way  to  Franklin  county,  N.  C,  where  he  was  hired  in  Jan.  last, 
of  Thomas  J.  Blackwell.  A  liberal  Reward  will  be  given  for  his 
confinement  in  any  Jail  in  North  or  South  Carolina,  or  to  any  one 
who  will  give  information  where  he  can  be  found. 

W.  H.  PRIVETT, 
Canwayboro',  S.  C. 

Handbills,  written  or  printed,  offering  rewards  for  the  return 
of  Runaway  slaves,  are  to  be  constantly  seen  at  nearly  every 
court-house,  tavern,  and  post-office  in  the  Southern  States.  The 
frequency  with  which  these  losses  must  occur,  however,  on  large 
plantations,  is  most  strongly  evidenced  by  the  following  para- 
graph from  the  domestic-news  columns  of  the  Fayetteville  Ob- 
sewer.  A  man  who  would  pay  these  prices  must  anticipate  fre- 
quent occasion  to  use  his  purchase. 

"  Mr.  J.  L.  Bryan,  of  Moore  county,  sold  at  public  auction,  on  the 
20th  instant,  a  pack  of  ten  hounds,  trained  for  hunting  runaways,  for 
the  sum  of  $1,540.  The  highest  price  paid  for  any  one  dog  was 
$301 ;  lowest  price,  $75 ;  average  for  the  ten,  $154.  The  terms 
of  sale  were  six  months'  credit,  with  approved  security,  and  interest 
from  date. " 

The  newspapers  of  the  Southwestern  States  frequently  con- 
tain advertisements  similar  to  the  following,  which  is  taken  from 
the  West  Tennessee  Democrat : 

BLOOD-HOUNDS.— I  have  TWO  of  the  FINEST  DOGS 
for  CATCHINO  NEGROES  in  the  Southwest.  They  can 
take  the  trail  TWELVE  HOURS  after  the  NEGRO  HAS  PASS- 
ED, and  catch  him  with  ease.  I  live  just  four  miles  southwest  of 
Boliver,  on  the  road  leading  from  Boliver  to  Whitesville.  I  am 
ready  at  all  times  to  catch  runaway  negroes. — March  2,  1853. 

DAVID  TURNER. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE     ECONOMY    OP     VIRGINIA: 

STATISTICS    OF    THE    ELEMENTS    OF     WEALTH    AND    THE  RESULTS 
OF     LABOR. 

The  Richmond  Enquirer,  a  very  strong  and  influential  pro- 
slavery  newspaper  of  Virginia,  in  advocating  some  rail-road  pro- 
jects, thus  describes  the  progress  of  the  State  relatively  to  that 
of  some  of  the  free-states,  since  the  Revolution.  (Dec.  29,  1852.) 

"  Virginia,  anterior  to  the  Revolution,  and  up  to  the  adoption  of 
the  Federal  Constitution,  contained  more  wealth  and  a  larger  popu- 
lation than  any  other  State  of  this  Confederacy.    *     *     * 

"Virginia,  from  being  first  in  point  of  wealth  aud  political  power, 
has  come  down  to  the  fifth  in  the  former,  and  the  fourth  in  the  latter. 
New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Massachusetts  and  Ohio  stand  above  her 
in  wealth,  and  all,  but  Massachusetts,  in  population  and  political 
power.  Three  of  these  States  are  literally  chequered  over  with 
rail-roads  and  canals  ;  and  the  fourth  (Massachusetts)  with  rail-roads 
alone.     *     *    * 

"  But  when  we  find  that  the  population  of  the  single  city  of  New 
York  and  its  environs  exceeds  the  whole  free  population  of  Eastern 
Virginia,  and  the  valley  between  the  Blue  Ridge  and  Alleghany,  we 
have  cause  to  feel  deeply  for  our  situation.  Philadelphia  herself 
contains  a  population  far  greater  than  the  whole  free  population  of 
Eastern  Virginia.  The  little  State  of  Massachusetts  has  an  aggre- 
gate wealth  exceeding  that  of  Virginia  by  more  than  one  hundred 
and  twenty-six  millions  of  dollars — a  State,  too,  which  is  incapable 
of  subsisting  its  inhabitants  from  the  production  of  its  soil.  And 
New  York,  which  was  as  much  below  Massachusetts,  at  the  adoption 


THE     ECONOMY    OF     VIRGINIA.  165 

of  the  Federal  Constitution,  in  wealth  and  power,  as  the  latter  was 
below  Virginia,  now  exceeds  the  wealth  of  both.  While  the  aggre- 
gate Avealth  of  New  York,  in  1850,  amounted  to  $1,080,309,216,  that 
of  Virginia  was  $436,701,082 — a  difference  in  favor  of  the  former 
of  $643,608,134.  The  un wrought  mineral  wealth  of  Virginia  ex- 
ceeds that  of  New  York.  The  climate  and  soil  are  better ;  the  back 
country,  with  equal  improvements,  would  contribute  as  much." 

The  same  journal  adds,  on  another  occasion: — 

"  In  no  State  of  the  Confederacy  do  the  facilities  for  manufactur- 
ing operations  exist  in  greater  profusion  than  in  Virginia.  Every 
condition  essential  to  success  in  these  employments  is  found  here  in 
prodigal  abundance,  and  in  a  peculiarly  convenient  combination. 
First,  we  have  a  limitless  supply  of  water-power — the  cheapest  of 
motors — in  localities  easy  of  access.  So  abundant  is  this  supply  of 
water-power  that  no  value  is  attached  to  it  distinct  from  the  adja- 
cent lands,  except  in  the  vicinity  of  the  larger  towns.  On  the  Poto- 
mac and  its  tributaries ;  on  the  Rappahannock;  on  the  James  and 
its  tributaries ;  on  the  Roanoke  and  its  tributaries  ;  on  the  Holston, 
the  Kanawha,  and  other  streams,  numberless  sites  may  now  be 
found  where  the  supply  of  water-power  is  sufficient  for  the  purposes 
of  a  Lawrence  or  a  Lowell.  Nor  is  there  any  want  of  material  for 
building  at  these  localities;  timber  and  granite  are  abundant;  and, 
to  complete  the  circle  of  advantages,  the  climate  is  genial  and 
healthful,  and  the  soil  eminently  productive.  *  *  *  Another 
advantage  which  Virginia  possesses,  for  the  manufacture  of  cotton,  is 
the  proximity  of  its  mills  to  the  raw  material.  At  the  present  prices 
of  the  staple,  the  value  of  this  advantage  is  estimated  at  10  per 
cent." 

The  Lynchburg  Virginian,  another  newspaper  of  respectability, 
having  a  similar  purpose  in  hand,  namely,  to  induce  capitalists 
to  invest  their  money  in  enterprises  that  shall  benefit  the  State, 
observes  that — 


"  The  coal  fields  of  Virginia  are  the  most  extensive  in  the  world, 
and  her  coal  is  of  the  best  and  purest  qtraltfcy.  s  Her  iron  deposits 
are  altogether  inexhaustible,  and  in  many  instances  so  pure  that  it  is 


166  OUR    SLAVE     STATES 

malleable  in  its  primitive  state  ;  and  many  of  these  deposits  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  extensive  coal-fields.  She  has,  too,  very  ex- 
tensive deposits  of  copper,  lead  and  gypsum.  Her  rivers  are  numer- 
ous and  bold,  generally  with  fall  enough  for  extensive  water  power. 

"  A  remarkable  feature  in  the  mining  and  manufacturing  prospects 
of  Virginia  is,  the  ease  and  economy  with  which  all  her  minerals  are 
mined  ;  instead  of  being,  as  in  England  and  elsewhere,  generally  im- 
bedded deep  within  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  from  which  they  can 
be  got  only  with  great  labor  and  at  great  cost,  ours  are  found  every- 
where on  the  hills  and  slopes,  with  their  ledges  dipping  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  plains  below.  Why,  then,  should  not  Virginia  at  once 
employ  at  least  half  of  her  labor  and  capital  in  mining  and  manufac- 
turing? Richmond  could  as  profitably  manufacture  all  cotton  and 
woolen  goods  as  Lowell,  or  any  other  town  in  New  England.  Why 
should  not  Lynchburg,  with  all  her  promised  facility  of  getting  coal 
and  pig  metal,  manufacture  all  articles  of  iron  and  steel  just  as 
cheaply,  and  yet  as  profitably,  as  any  portion  of  the  northern  States  ? 
Why  should  not  every  town  and  village  on  the  line  of  every  rail-road 
in  the  State,  erect  their  shops,  in  which  they  may  manufacture  a 
thousand  articles  of  daily  consumption,  just  as  good  and  cheap  as 
they  may  be  made  anywhere  ?    *     *     * 

"  Dependent  upon  Europe  and  the  North  for  almost  every  yard 
of  cloth,  and  every  coat,  and  boot,  and  hat  we  wear ;  for  our  axes, 
scythes,  tubs,  and  buckets — in  short,  for  everything  except  our  bread 
and  meat !  It  must  occur  to  the  South  that  if  our  relations  with  the 
North  should  ever  be  severed — and  how  soon  they  may  be,  none  can 
know  (may  God  avert  it  long  !) — we  would,  in  all  the  South,  not  be 
able  to  clothe  ourselves.  We  could  not  fell  our  forests,  plow  our 
fields,  nor  mow  our  meadows.  In  fact,  we  would  be  reduced  to  a 
state  more  abject  than  we  are  willing  to  look  at,  even  prospectively. 
And  yet,  with  all  these  things  staring  us  in  the  face,  we  shut  our 
eyes,  and  go  on  blindfold." 

At  the  Convention  for  the  formation  of  the  Virginia  State 
Agricultural  Society,  in  1852,  the  draft  of  an  address  to  the  farmers 
of  the  State  was  read,  approved,  and  once  adopted  by  the  Con- 
vention. The  vote  by  which  it  was  adopted  was  soon  afterwards 
reconsidered,  and  it  was  again  approved  and  adopted.     A  second 


THE     ECONOMY     OF     VIRGINIA.  167 

time  it  was  reconsidered ;  and  finally  it  was  rejected,  on  the 
ground  that  there  were  admissions  in  it  that  would  feed  the 
fanaticism  of  the  abolitionists.  No  one  argued  against  it  on  the 
ground  of  the  falsity  or  inaccuracy  of  these  admissions.  Twenty 
of  the  most  respectable  proprietors  in  the  State,  immediately 
afterwards,  believing  it  to  contain  "matter  of  grave  import," 
which  should  not  be  suppressed  for  such  a  reason,  united  in 
requesting  a  copy  of  it  for  publication.  In  the  note  of  these 
gentlemen  to  the  author,  they  express  the  belief  that  Virginia 
now  "  possesses  the  richest  soil,  most  genial  climate,  and  cheap- 
est labor  on  earth."  The  author  of  the  address,  in  his  reply, 
says  :  "  Fanaticism  is  a  fool  for  whose  vagaries  I  am  not  re- 
sponsible. I  am  a  pro-slavery  man — I  believe  it,  at  this  time, 
impossible  to  abolish  it,  and  not  desirable  if  it  were  possible." 

The  address  was  accordingly  published.  I  make  the  follow- 
ing extracts  from  it,  not  only  on  account  of  the  incontrovertible 
facts  presented  in  them,  but  to  show  that  the  ostrich-habit,  of 
burying  their  heads  in  the  ground  before  anything  they  don't 
like,  is  not  universal  with  Virginians : 

"ADDRESS   TO   THE   FARMERS   OF   VIRGINIA. 

"'The  Southern  States  stand  foremost  in  agricultural  labor, 
though  they  hold  but  the  third  rank  in  population.'  At  the  head 
of  these  Southern  States,  in  production,  in  extent  of  territory,  in 
climate,  in  soil,  and  in  population,  stands  the  Commonwealth  of 
Virginia.  She  is  a  nation  of  farmers.  Eight-tenths  of  her  indus- 
try is  expended  upon  the  soil ;  but  less  than  one-third  of  her 
domain  is  in  pasturage,  or  under  the  plow." 

"  Out  of  somewhat  more  than  thirty-nine  millions  of  acres,  she  tills 
but  little  over  ten  millions  of  acres,  or  about  twenty-six  and  a  quarter 
per  cent.,  whilst  New  York  has  subdued  about  forty-one  per  cent., 
or  twelve  and  a  quarter  out  of  her  twenty-nine  and  a  half  millions 
of  acres :  and  Massachusetts,  with  her  sterile  soil  and  inhospitable 


l68  our    slave    states. 

climate,  has  reclaimed  from  the  forest,  the  quarry,  and  the  marsh, 
about  forty-two  and  a  half  per  cent.,  or  two  and  one-eighth  out  of 
her  little  territory  of  five  millions  of  acres.  Yet,  according  to  the 
census  of  1840,  only  six-tenths  of  the  labor  of  New  York,  and  four- 
tenths  of  that  of  Massachusetts,  or,  relatively,  one-fifth  and  two- 
fifths  less  than  our  own,  is  expended  upon  agriculture.       *     *     * 

"The  live  stock  of  Virginia  are  worth  only  three  dollars  and 
thirty-one  cents  for  every  arable  acre  ;  but  in  New  York  they  are 
worth  six  dollars  and  seven  cents,  and  in  Massachusetts  four  dollars 
and  fifty-two  cents. 

"  The  proportion  of  hay  for  the  same  quantity  of  land  is,  for 
Virginia,  eighty-one  pounds ;  for  New  York,  six  hundred  and 
seventy -nine  pounds ;  for  Massachusetts,  six  hundred  and  eighty- 
four  pounds.     *     *     * 

"With  access  to  the  same  markets,  and  with  hundreds  of  me- 
chanics of  our  own,  who  can  vie  with  the  best  Northern  manufacturers, 
we  find  that  our  implements  are  inferior,  that  the  New  York  farmer 
spends  upon  his  nearly  three  times  as  much  as  we  do  upon  ours,  and 
the  Massachusetts  farmer  more  than  double.       *     *     * 

"  Manure  is  indispensable  to  good  husbandry.  Judging  from  the 
history  of  agriculture  in  all  other  countries,  we  may  safely  say,  that 
farming  can  never  attain  to  continued  perfection  where  manure  is 
not  put  on  with  an  unsparing  hand.  By  far  the  larger  part  of  this 
can  only  be  made  by  stock,  which  should,  at  the  same  time,  be  made 
the  source  of  profit,  at  least  sufficient  to  pay  the  cost  of  their  keep, 
so  that,  other  things  being  equal,  it  is  a  safe  rule  to  estimate  the 
condition  of  a  farming  district  by  the  amount  of  live  stock  it  may 
possess,  and  the  provision  made  for  their  sustenance.  Applied  in 
this  instance,  we  see  that  the  New  York  farmer  has  invested  in  live 
stock  two  dollars  and  seventy-six  cents,  and  the  Massachusetts 
farmer  one  dollar  and  twenty-one  cents  per  acre  more  than  the  Vir- 
*  ginia  farmer.  In  pasturage  we  cannot  tell  the  difference.  It  is  well, 
perhaps,  for  the  honor  of  the  State,  that  we  cannot.  But  in  hay, 
New  York  has  five  hundred  and  ninety-eight  pounds,  and  Massa- 
chusetts six  hundred  and  three  pounds  more  per  acre  than  we  have. 
This,  however,  does  not  present  the  true  state  of  the  case.  Land- 
locked by  mountain  barriers,  as  yet  impassable  for  the  ordinary 
agricultural  staples,  or  debarred  from  their  production  by  distance 
and  prohibitory  rates  of  transportation,  most  of  the  wealth    and 


THE     ECONOMY     OF     VIRGINIA.  lo. 

exports  of  many  considerable  portions  of  our  State  consists  of  live 
stock  alone.  What  proportion  these  parts  bear  to  the  whole,  we 
have  been  unable  definitely  to  ascertain ;  but  it  is,  no  doubt,  so  great 
as  to  warrant  us  in  assuming  a  much  more  considerable  disparity 
than  the  statistics  show  in  the  live  stock  of  the  whole  Atlantic 
slope,  as  compared  with  New  York  and  Massachusetts.  And  we 
shall  appreciate,  still  more  highly,  the  skill  of  the  Northern  farmer, 
if  we  reflect  that  a  readier  market  for  every,  the  most  trivial,  product 
of  his  farm,  operates  a  constant  temptation  to  break  up  his  rotation 
and  diminish  his  stock. 

"In  the  above  figures,  carefully  calculated  from  the  data  of 
authentic  documents,*  we  find  no  cause  for  self-gratulation,  but  some 
food  for  meditation.  They  are  not  without  use  to  those  who  would 
improve  the  future  by  the  past.  They  show  that  we  have  not  done 
our  part  in  the  bringing  of  land  into  cultivation  ;  that,  notwithstand- 
ing natural  advantages  which  greatly  exceed  those  of  the  two  States 
drawn  into  parallel  with  Virginia,  we  are  yet  behind  them  both — 
that  with  forty  and  sixty  per  cent,  respectively  of  their  industry 
devoted  to  other  pursuits,  into  which  it  has  been  lured  by  prospects 
of  greater  gain,  they  have  done  more  than  we  have  done.     *     *     * 

"  Whilst  our  population  has  increased  for  the  last  ten  years,  in  a 
ratio  of  11-66,  that  of  New  York  has  increased  in  a  ratio  of  27-52, 
and  that  of  Massachusetts  at  the  still  heavier  and  more  startling  rate 
of  34 "81.  With  a  territorial  area  thirty  per  cent,  larger  than  New 
York,  we  have  but  little  more  than  one-third  of  her  Congressional 
representation ;  and  Massachusetts,  only  one-eighth  our  size,  comes 
within  two  of  our  number  of  representatives,  we  being  cut  down  to 
thirteen,  while  she  rises  to  eleven.  And  thus  we,  who  once  swayed 
the  councils  of  the  Union,  find  our  power  gone,  and  our  influence 
on  the  wane,  at  a  time  when  both  are  of  vital  importance  to  our 
prosperity,  if  not  to  our  safety.  As  other  States  accumulate  the 
means  of  material  greatness,  and  glide  past  us  on  the  road  to  wealth 
and  empire,  we  slight  the  warnings  of  dull  statistics,  and  drive  lazily 
along  the  field  of  ancient  customs,  or  stop  the  plow  to  speed  the 
politician — should  we  not,  in  too  many  cases,  say  with  more  pro- 
priety, the  demagogue  ! 

*  Abstract  of  the  Seventh  Census,  and  the  able  work  of  Professor  Tucker,  oa 
the  "  Progress  of  the  United  States  in  Population  and  Wealth." 
8 


X 


OUR     SLAVE     STATES 


"  State  pride  is  a  good  thing,  it  is  one  mode  in  which  patriotism  is 
manifested.  But  it  is  not  always  a  wise  one.  Certainly  not,  when 
it  makes  us  content  on  small  grounds.  And  when  it  smothers  up 
improvement  in  self-satisfaction,  it  is  a  most  pernicious  thing.  We 
have  much  to  be  proud  of  in  Virginia.  In  intellect  and  fitness  to 
command,  in  personal  and  social  qualities,  in  high  tone  and  noble 
bearing,  in  loyalty,  in  generosity,  and  magnanimity,  and  disinterested- 
ness, above  all,  in  moral  purity,  we  once  stood — let  us  hope,  still 
stand — preeminent  among  our  sister  States.  But  the  possession 
and  practice  of  these  virtues  do  not  comprise  our  whole  duty  as 
men  or  as  citizens.  The  great  decree  which  has  gone  forth  ordaining 
that  we  shall  "inci-ease,  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth," 
enjoins  upon  us  quite  other  duties,  which  cannot  be  neglected  with 
impunity;  so  we  have  found  out  by  experience — for  we  have 
neglected  these  duties.  And  when  we  contemplate  our  field  of  labor? 
and  the  work  we  have  done  in  it,  we  cannot  but  observe  the  sad 
contrast  between  capacity  and  achievement.  With  a  wide-spread 
domain,  with  a  kindly  soil,  with  a  climate  whose  sun  radiates  fertility, 
and  whose  very  dews  distill  abundance,  we  find  our  inheritance  so 
wasted  that  the  eye  aches  to  behold  the  prospect." 

The  Census  of  1850  gives  the  following  values  to  agricul- 
tural land  in  the  adjoining  States  of  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania. 

In  Virginia.  In  Pennsylvania. 

No.  of  acres  improved  land  in  farms,    10,360,135  8,626,619 

"  unimproved,  15,792,176  6,294,728 

Cash  value  of  farms,        $216,401,543— §8  an  acre.        $407,876,099— §25  an  acre 

Considering  that,  at  the  Bevolution,  Virginia  had  nearly  twice 
the  population  of  Pennsylvania,  was  in  possession  of  much  more 
wealth  or  disposable  capital,  and  had  much  the  best  natural 
facilities  for  external  commerce  and  internal  communication,  if 
her  political  and  social  constitution  had  been  and  had  continued 
equally  good,  and  her  people  equally  industrious  and  enterprising 
with  those  of  Pennsylvania,  there  is  no  reason  why  the  value 
of  her  farms  should  not  have  been,  at  this  time,  at  least  equal 


THE     ECONOMY    OF     VIRGINIA.  171 

to  those  of  Pennsylvania.  Were  it  so,  it  appears  that  Virginia, 
in  that  particular  alone,  would  now  be  richer  than  she  is  by  four 
hundred  and  thirty  millions  of  dollars. 

If  it  should  be  thought  that  this  difference  between  the  value 
of  land  in  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania  is  in  some  degree  due  to 
more  fertile  soils  in  the  latter,  a  similar  comparison  may  be  made 
with  the  other  adjoining  free  State,  and  old  State  of  New  Jersey, 
the  climate  of  which,  owing  to  its  vicinity  to  the  ocean,  differs 
imperceptibly  from  that  of  Virginia,  while  its  soil  is  decidedly 
less  fertile,  taking  both  States  on  an  average.  The  average 
value  of  farming-land  in  New  Jersey  is  recorded  at  $44. 

Give  this  value  to  the  Virginia  farms,  and  the  difference  between 
it  and  their  present  value  would  buy,  at  a  large  valuation,  all 
the  slaves  now  in  the  State,  send  them  to  Africa,  provide  each 
family  of  them  five  hundred  dollars  to  start  with  when  they 
reached  there,  and  leave  still  a  surplus  which,  divided  among 
the  present  white  population  of  the  State,  would  give  between 
two  and  three  thousand  dollars  to  each  family. 

Some  Southern  writers  have  lately  objected  to  comparisons 
of  density  of  population,  as  indications  of  the  prosperity  of 
communities.  Between  two  adjoining  communities,  however, 
where  there  are  no  restrictions  upon  the  movements  of  the  popu- 
lations, and  when  the  people  are  so  ready  to  move  as  both  those 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  New  Jersey,  and  of  Virginia  have  shown 
themselves  to  be,  the  price  of  land  must  indicate  with  considerable 
exactness  the  comparative  value  or  desirableness  of  it,  all  things 
considered,  to  live  upon.  The  Virginians  do  not  admit,  and  have 
no  occasion  to  do  so,  that  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey  have 
any  advantage  over  Virginia,  in  soil,  in  climate,  or  in  any  natural 
quality. 


172  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

Why,  then,  these  differences  ? 

In  intellectual  productions,  the  same  general  comparative 
barrenness  is  noticeable.  One  or  two  of  the  richest  men  in 
material  wealth  in  the  United  States,  live  in  Virginia ;  but  there 
are,  also,  more  excessively  poor  men  than  anywhere  else. 
The  best  examples  of  the  application  of  science,  economically 
to  agriculture,  can,  I  suspect,  be  found  in  Virginia ;  but  the 
generally-followed  system  of  agriculture  is  the  worst,  under 
the  circumstances,  that  the  ingenuity  of  penny-wise  simpletons 
has  yet  contrived  in  this  country.  So  it  is  with  intellectual 
wealth:  there  are  a  few  minds  learned  and  highly  cultivated, 
but  says  the  Richmond  Whig — the  leading  Know-nothing  news- 
paper in  the  Southern  States — with  a  provincial  simplicity,  the 
sincerity  of  which  will  hardly  be  credible  to  men  of  the  world : 

"We  receive  nearly  all  our  books  from  Northern  or  foreign 
authors — gotten  up,  printed  by  Northern  or  foreign  publishers — 
while  we  have  among  us  numberless  men  of  ripe  scholarship,  pro- 
found acquirements,  elegant  and  forcible  writers — men  willing  to 
devote  themselves  to  such  labor,  only  a  Southern  hook  is  not  patron- 
ized. The  North  usually  scowls  at  it,  ridicules  it,  or  damns  it  with 
faint  praise  ;  and  the  South  takes  on  a  like  hue  and  complexion  and 
neglects  it.  We  have  printers  and  publishers  able,  willing,  and  com- 
petent to  publish,  but,  such  is  the  apathy  on  the  part  of  Southern 
people,  that  it  involves  hazard  to  Southern  publishers  to  put  them 
out.  Indeed,  until  recently,  almost  all  the  publications,  even  of 
Southern  books,  issued  (and  that  was  their  only  hope  of  success) 
from  Northern  houses.  The  last  chance  now  of  getting  a  Southern 
book  sold,  is  to  manage  to  secure  the  favorable  notice  of  the  Northern 
press,  and  then  the  South  buys  it.  Our  magazines  and  periodicals 
languish  for  support." 

Mr.  Howison,  "  the  Virginia  Historian,"  observes : 

"  The  question  might  be  asked,  where  is  the  literature  of  Vir- 


THE     ECONOMY     OF     VIRGINIA.  173 

ginia,  and  it  would  not  be  easily  answered.  It  is  a  melancholy  fact, 
that  her  people  have  never  been  a  reading  people.  In  the  mass  they 
have  shown  an  indifference  to  polite  literature  and  education  in  gene- 
ral depressing  to  the  mind  that  wishes  to  see  them  respectable  and 
happy." 

"It  is  with  pain,"  says  the  same  authority,  "that we  are  com- 
pelled to  speak  of  the  horrible  cloud  of  ignorance  that  rests  on 
Virginia,"  and  he  computes  that  (1848)  there  are  in  the  State 
166,000  youth,  between  seven  and  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  of 
these  126,000  attend  no  school  at  all,  and  receive  no  education 
except  what  can  be  imparted  by  poor  and  ignorant  parents. 
Besides  these,  he  reckons  449,087  slaves  and  48,852  free 
negroes,  with  few  exceptions,  wholly  uneducated. 

"  The  policy  which  discourages  further  extension  of  knowledge 
among  them  is  necessary  :  but  the  fact  remains  unchanged,  that  they 
exist  among  us,  a  huge  mass  of  mind,  almost  entirely  unenlightened. 
We  fear  that  the  most  favorable  estimates  will  leave,  in  our  State, 
683,000  rational  beings  Avho  are  destitute  of  the  merest  rudiments  of 
knowledge." 

WHAT   IS    NOT    THE    CAUSE. 

What  is  the  cause  of  the  comparative  poverty  of  Virginia 
thus  asserted  and  described? 

This  is  a  question  often  asked,  and  is  one  of  direct  personal 
interest  to  many  at  the  North ;  to  capitalists,  for  instance,  who 
are  urged  to  invest  their  funds  in  Virginia  lands,  mines,  and 
other  stocks,  and  to  creditors  of  the  State,  and  of  corporations 
and  individuals  in  the  State.  It  is  especially  interesting  to  a 
large  class  of  persons  who  would  prefer  to  live  in  a  milder  climate 
than  that  of  any  of  the  free  States,  but  who  are  withheld  from 
immigrating  to  Virginia  by  the  potent  fact,  that  wealth  has  not 
accumulated  to  the  people  at  large  in  that  State,  with  anything 


174  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

like  the  ease  and  rapidity  that  it  has  to  those  of  the  adjoining 
northern  States. 

I  am  myself  one  of  this  class,  and  it  certainly  was  a  great 
temptation  to  me,  while  I  was  enjoying  the  delightful  January 
climate  of  Virginia,  to  be  offered  any  amount  of  land  which  I  was 
certain  could  he  easily  made  to  produce,  under  good  tillage, 
twenty-five  or  thirty  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre,  within  twenty- 
four  hours  of  New  York  by  rail,  and  forty-eight  by  water- 
carriage,  at  exactly  one  fortieth  of  the  price,  by  the  acre,  at 
which  I  could  sell  my  New  York  farm.  And,  since  my  return 
from  the  South,  I  have  been  several  times  consulted  by  persons, 
some  of  them  of  considerable  estate,  who  had  determined, 
more  or  less  definitely,  to  remove  to  Virginia,  induced 
thereto  by  such  letters  as  the  following,  which  are  constantly 
addressed  to  Northern  capitalists,  farmers,  and  skilled  laborers, 
or  manufacturers,  by  Virginia  land-owners.  This  particular  one 
I  take  from  the  American  Agriculturist,  to  the  editor  of  which 
it  was  directed,  and  by  whom  it  was  published,  gratis  and 
without  comment,  as  such  advertisements  usually  are,  in  our 
agricultural  newspapers : 

"Virginia — Inducements  for  Northern  Men  to  Invest  Capital. 
Why  is  it  that  capitalists  do  not  seek  for  a  home  in  Western  Virginia  ? 
Why  is  it  that  manufacturers  do  not  explore  this  delightful  country  ? 
Is  it  not  worth  their  notice  ?  Are  there  no  inducements  offered  here 
for  the  honest,  industrious  laborer  ?  I  will  offer  some  reasons  why  men 
of  the  North  should  look  to  the  South  for  a  home  for  themselves  and 
offspring.  Western  Virginia  is,  in  the  first  place,  one  of  the  most  desir- 
able portions  of  the  Southern  States.  Every  facility  is  here  offered  for 
the  investment  of  capital.  Our  mountains  teem  with  rich  ores  of  every 
kind  ;  our  lands  blossom  with  golden  harvests.  The  rippling  streams 
that  gurgle  down  our  mountain-slopes  furnish  every  variety  of  water- 
power,  easily  adapted  to  the  propelling  of  machinery.  The  States  west 
and  south  furnish  a  ready  market  for  the  sale  of  manufactured  articles, 


THE     ECONOMY     OF     VIRGINIA.  175 

or  agricultural  products.  The  farmers  here  are  dependent,  notwith- 
standing the  facilities  of  manufacturing,  to  a  very  great  extent,  upon  the 
North  for  all  their  implements  of  husbandry  and  household  articles. 
Suppose,  then,  that  we  had  some  fifty  or  a  hundred  different  manufac- 
turing establishments  in  Western  Virginia,  it  would  supersede  the 
necessity  of  importing  such  things  from  abroad  as  wagons,  buggies, 
clocks,  brooms,  rakes,  shoes,  boots,  coats,  pants,  etc.,  etc.  Every  mer- 
chant in  the  Southern  and  Western  States  supplies  his  customers  with 
these  articles  from  the  North.  Now,  suppose  for  one  moment,  that  our 
merchants  can  buy  from  the  Northern  manufacturers,  and  pay  the 
carriage  upon  articles  gotten  up  there,  and  sold  to  the  Southern  States 
at  fine  profit,  is  it  not  reasonable  to  suppose,  if  the  article  was  manu- 
factured here,  the  amount  now  consumed  in  transportation  would  be 
saved  to  the  manufacturers  located  here  upon  the  spot,  and  make  him  a 
handsome  profit  ? 

"  No  man  can  form  an  adequate  idea  of  the  extent  of  this  trade,  unless 
he  travel  through  the  Southern  States.  Scarcely  a  broom,  a  clock,  a 
boot,  or  shoe,  or  anything  of  the  kind  is  used  in  the  South  that  is  not 
manufactured  by  Northern  industry ;  and  yet  all  articles  used  can  be 
readily  manufactured  here  as  well  as  there,  and,  if  taken  hold  of  by  some 
enterprising  men,  would  be  found  more  profitable.  In  fact,  several 
Northern  men  have  already  settled  in  Northern  Virginia,  and  are  now 
pushing  forward  a  happy  and  prosperous  trade.  The  Virginia  and 
Tennessee  Rail-road  will  soon  be  completed,  along  the  line  of  which  an 
immense  traffic  must  be  conducted.  Then  have  you  no  thorough-going 
business  men,  who  cannot  find  employment  at  the  North,  and  who  can- 
not earn  more  than  a  mere  livelihood  ?  If  so,  I  advise  them  to  turn 
their  faces  at  once  toward  Western  Virginia,  where  the  smiles  of  Pro- 
vidence and  the  rays  of  a  Southern  sun  will  cheer  and  animate  them  in 
their  rapid  strides  to  happiness  and  wealth." 

Here  is  another  one,  ingeniously  contrived,  for  wide-awake 
people  who  read  the  Tribune,  and  are  supposed  to  have  pre- 
judices : 

'•'  The  effects  of  Slavery  in  this  region  have  only  been  such  as  to  ren- 
der it  a  more  profitable  locality  for  the  new  settler,  provided,  always,  he 
does  not  suffer  himself  to  be  engrafted  with  its  spirit.  This  suggests  to 
my  mind  another  observation,  taken  from  the  experience  of  settlers  from 


176  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

the  North.  A  single  family,  of  New  England  habits  and  tastes,  settling 
among  neighbors  of  the  slave-holding,  work-hating  class,  becomes,  in  a 
short  time,  tired  of  the  isolation  from  all  the  friends  and  the  habits  to 
which  they  have  been  accustomed,  and  disgusted  with  the  condition  of 
things  they  find  around  them.  The  wife  misses  her  relations  and 
neighbors,  and  her  Sunday-meeting,  and,  after  a  year  or  two  of  trial, 
declares  she  will  stay  no  longer  ;  the  children  want  the  ready  compan- 
ionship of  more  thickly  populated  districts  ;  and  the  experiment  is  given 
up,  not  because  it  will  not  pay  in  a  pecuniary  sense,  but  for  the  reasons 
I  have  mentioned.  Now,  to  obviate  this  difficulty,  let  families  come  and 
settle  in  groups,  or  let  a  new  settler,  in  selecting  a  location,  choose  one 
in  a  neighborhood  already  occupied  with  small  farmers  or  mechanics  of 
his  own  class,  with  whom  he  can  associate,  and  whose  example  will  back 
him  in  continuing  his  system  of  working  with  his  own  hand.  This  plan 
has  been  adopted,  as  you  are  aware,  in  some  of  the  northeastern  coun- 
ties of  Virginia,  which  now  contain  a  population  of  active,  intelligent 
and  prosperous  farmers  and  mechanics,  from  uon-slaveholding  States, 
while  single  settlements  in  other  equally  favorable  localities  have  been 
abandoned.  The  price  of  land  in  the  lower  counties  of  this  State  varies 
from  three  to  fifty  dollars  an  acre.  In  many  situations,  land  of  good 
quality  can  now  be  bought,  covered  with  timber,  valuable  either  for  fuel 
or  for  ship-building,  in  close  proximity  to  water-carriage,  or  to  a  line 
of  rail-road,  at  eight  or  ten  dollars  an  acre.  The  clearing  of  the  land 
will  often  pay  most  or  all  the  cost,  leaving  a  soil  of  good  quality,  and 
easily  cultivated,  and  Avhich,  from  the  nature  of  things,  must  rapidly 
enhance  in  value." 

I  have  read  at  least  a  hundred  such  advertisements  in  different 
Northern  newspapers  ;  a  dozen  were  printed  in  the  Daily  Times, 
cotemporaneously  with  my  own  letters  from  the  South ;  and  in 
the  more  pro-slavery  journals  they  may  be  seen,  in  one  form  or 
another,  almost  weekly. 

When  Virginia  gentlemen  thus  carefully  argue  the  advan- 
tages which  their  State  offers  to  an  immigration  from  the  free 
States ;  and  when  they  publicly  urge  that  Slavery  is  no 
obstacle,  but  the  contrary,  to  the  success  of  such  immigrants, 


THE     ECONOMY     OF     VIRGINIA.  177 

it  seems  to  me  they  have  no  business  to  stigmatize  as  im- 
pertinent, Northern  curiosity  to  learn  all  about  the  matter. 

Even  the  condition  of  the  slaves,  moral  and  material,  the 
Internal  Slave  Trade,  the  effects  of  Slavery  on  the  character 
of  the  people,  I  consider  to  be  as  distinctly  a  part  of  the 
general  rural  economy  of  the  country,  as  legitimately  con- 
nected with  the  value  of  public  stocks,  and  as  pertinent  a 
subject  of  inquiry,  as  any  of  those  points  Avith  regard  to 
which  every  farmer  in  the  United  States  was  required  to  give 
information,  under  the  head  of  crops  and  live-stock,  in  the  cen- 
sus of  1850.  Nor  do  I  believe,  that  justice  or  kindness  to 
the  Slave  States,  or  regard  to  the  stability  of  the  Union, 
can  be  opposed  to  a  thorough — so  it  be  honest — investigation 
of  the  condition  of  those  States,  and  study  of  the  causes  of 
that  condition. 

Let  me  frankly,  and  with  the  most  respectful  and  friendly 
disposition  towards  those  who  disagree  with  me,  state  my 
convictions  on  this  subject. 

Very  little  candid,  truthful,  and  unprejudiced  public  dis- 
cussion has  yet  been  had  on  this  vexed  subject  of  Slavery. 
The  extremists  of  the  South  esteem  their  opponents  as  mad- 
men, or  robbers ;  and  invariably  misrepresent,  misunderstand, 
and,  consequently,  entirely  fail  to  meet  their  arguments.  The 
extremists  of  the  North  esteem  the  slave-holders  as  robbers  and 
tyrants,  willfully  and  malevolently  oppressive  and  cruel.  But 
I  suppose  more  has  been  done,  to  prevent  reasonable  views 
and  judicious  action,  by  those,  both  North  and  South,  who 
have  held  moderate  and  more  reasonable  opinions,  than. by 
those   of  either  of  the  extreme  parties.     I  mean  that,  in  the 

endeavor   to    suppress    agitation,   they   have   produced   an  un- 
8* 


178  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

healthy  distrust,  and  an  unsound  and  dangerous  condition  of 
the  public  mind.  In  the  feverish  effort  to  secure  peace,  they 
have  forgotten,  as  is  now  apparent,  the  easiest  lessons  of 
history  and  disregarded  the  simplest  demands  of  prudence. 
"Men,"  says  Macaulay,  "are  never  so  likely  to  settle  a 
question  rightly,  as  when  they  discuss  it  freely."  The  prin- 
ciple is  at  the  basis  of  free  institutions.  Its  reverse  is  the 
apex  of  despotism.  The  attempt  to  suppress  discussion  has 
given  every  advantage  to  the  unterrified  partisans  on  both  sides, 
who  assume  to  fight  for  truth  and  rights. 

Since  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  I  presume 
no  one  doubts,  whatever  he  may  desire,  that  Slavery  must 
continue  to  be  an  important,  if  not  an  engrossing  element  in  our 
politics.  It  is  impossible  that  it  should  not,  while  slaves  are 
an  important  article  of  commerce,  and  while  their  value  can 
be  materially  affected  by  the  national  legislation.  Speculation 
on  such  legislation  will  occur,  and  will  be  guarded  against , 
and  there  will  be  more  or  less  consideration  of  the  constitu- 
tional rights  of  each  side  of  the  Union,  according  as  the 
people  are  rightly  informed  and  honestly  dealt  with  by 
politicians. 

Northern  men  have,  at  present,  too  little  information  about 
the  South  that  has  not  come  to  them  in  a  very  inexact,  or  in 
a  very  suspicious  form,  as  in  novels  and  narratives  of  fugi- 
tive slaves.  Northerners  traveling  in  the  South,  are  gene- 
rally merchants,  looking  after  their  personal  business ;  invalids 
sauntering  through  the  winter  in  sunny  places ;  or  wealthy 
people,  looking  for  pleasure  to  the  society  of  the  hospitable 
wealthy.  There  is  but  little  Southern  literature ;  and  what 
there    is     is    mainly    imaginative     or    controversial.      Of    the 


THE     ECONOMY     OF     VIRGINIA.  179 

masses  of  the  South,  black  and  white,  it  is  more  difficult  for 
one  to  obtain  information,  than  of  those  of  any  country 
in  Europe.  I  saw  much  more  of  what  I  had  not  antici- 
pated and  less  of  what  I  had,  in  the  Slave  States,  than,  with 
a  somewhat  extended  traveling  experience,  in  any  other  country 
[  ever  visited. 

To  return  to  the  question  of  the  condition  of  Virginia  and  of 
its  causes. 

The  leading  agriculturists  of  the  State  who  are  least  afraid  of 
"  abolitionism,"  declare  the  conviction  that  not  only  has  Virginia 
at  this  time  richer  soils  and  cheaper  than  the  wealthier  States, 
but  also  the  cheapest  labor  in  the  world ;  the  organ  of  the  State 
Agricultural  Society  sustains  the  same  opinion ;  and  Mr.  Euffin, 
the  most  eminent  rural  economist  in  the  State,  is  allowed  to 
advocate  the  same  opinion  in  a  Keport  of  the  United  States 
Patent  Office. 

If  it  is  true  that  here  are  richer  soils,  cheaper  soils,  and  less 
expensive  means  of  developing  their  wealth  than  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, New  York,  and  Massachusetts,  why  is  it  that  the  immensely 
more  abundant  capital  of  those  States  is  not  attracted  to  Vir- 
ginia ? 

Of  course  a  question  so  important  to  the  property-holders  of 
the  State  cannot  fail  to  be  gravely  considered,  and  answered 
according  to  every  reflective  man's  sagacity.  In  fact,  no  new  pro- 
ject of  legal  or  social  change  is  ever  advocated,  that  its  friends 
do  not  contend  that  the  measure  will  remove  either  the  sole 
cause  or  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  decadence  of  Virginia. 
Thus  seldom  a  day  passes  in  the  session  of  the  Legislature,  that 
some  one  does  not  give  his  judgment  upon  the  subject.  At 
every  gathering  of  the  people,  for  political  purposes  or  for  the 


ISO  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

advancement  of  schemes  for  the  general  benefit,  some  orator  is 
almost  sure  to  take  up  the  topic  of  the  poverty  and  slow  progress 
of  the  State  ;  and,  after  denouncing  the  fanaticism  and  licentious- 
ness of  any  one  who  dares  suspect  that  slavery  has  anything  to  do 
with  it,  to  explain  what,  in  the  orator's  opinion,  is  the  real  cause, 
and  what  is  the  right  way  to  remove  it. 

Among  the  causes  thus  presented,  the  following  are  the  only 
ones  having  any  breadth  of  application,  of  which  I  can  recollect 
to  have  heard. 

1.  The  want  of  better  education  of  the  mass  of  the  people, 
(for  it  is  maintained  that  the  wealthier  class  are  better  educated 
than  any  in  the  free  States). 

2.  The  want  of  more  agricultural  science  and  skill. 

3.  The  want  of  more  and  better  roads,  canals,  etc. 

4.  The  want  of  direct  commerce  with  Europe  and  elsewhere. 

5.  The  want  of  manufactures. 

All  these  alleged  causes,  and  all  others,  that  I  have  ever  heard 
assigned  for  the  decrepitude  of  .the  State,  are  reduced  to  the 
following  two,  by  simply  asking,  why  Virginia  has  these  wants 
more  than  the  free  States  : 

1.  The  more  debilitating  effects  of  the  climate  upon  white 
people ;  and 

2.  The  gentle  blood  and  the  corresponding  character,  averse  to 
commercial  speculation,  inherited  by  the  people. 

These  are  the  only  reasons  that  I  know  of,  except  those 
pointing  to  slavery  and  social  aristocracy,  that  appear  on  the 
face  worthy  of  a  moment's  consideration. 

In  regard  to  the  first,  the  authority  of  those  who  sus- 
tain the  opinion,  that  slavery  is  a  blessing  to  the  State, 
might  be   cited  for   the    averment,   that   the   climate    of    the 


THE     ECONOMY    OF     VIRGINIA.  181 

greater  part  of  Virginia  is  no  less  favorable  to  the  activity 
of  the  white  man  than  that  of  the  more  northern  States. 
North  of  the  country  bordering  upon  a  slave  population,  no 
similar  connection  between  climate  and  prosperity  is  to  be 
found ;  the  wealth  of  Massachusetts  is  greater  than  that  of 
the  States  lying  north  of  her ;  land  is  of  higher  value  in  New 
Jersey  than  in  Maine ;  the  agriculture  of  parts  of  Eastern 
Pennsylvania  is  more  commendable  and  more  profitable  than 
that  of  any  part  of  New  York ;  the  manufacturing  industry  of 
New  York  is  far  greater  than  that  of  Virginia,  but  not  so  great 
as  that  of  the  States  between  her  and  Virginia,  and  between 
which  and  herself  there  is  as  great  a  difference  of  climate,  and  of 
the  same  nature,  as  that  between  them  and  Virginia.  The 
most  active,  enterprising,  successful  and  prosperous  States  of 
antiquity,  were  those  of  a  climate  warmer  than  that  of  States 
in  commercial  subjection  to  them,  and  warmer  than  that  of 
Virginia.  Any  slight  additional  enervating  effect  that  the 
climate  of  Virginia  may  possibly  have  upon  those  born  and 
bred  under  it,  must  be  more  than  compensated  for,  to  the 
agricultural  interest  of  the  State,  by  the  greater  length  of 
the  season  in  which  the  ground  is  in  a  condition  to  be 
worked,  and  the  greater  cheapness  with  which  cattle  can  be 
wintered ;  to  manufacturing,  mining,  and  commercial  interests, 
by  the  smaller  liability  of  their  operations  being  interrupted  by 
ice,  etc. 

With  regard  to  the  second  reason,  which  is  that  held  by  the 
Richmond  Enquirer,  as  will  be  inferred  from  the  polite  and 
modest  passage   extracted  below,*  it  must  be  considered  that 

*  "  The  relations  between  the  North-and  the  South  are  very  analogous  to 
those  which  subsisted  between  Greece  and  the  Roman  Empire  after  the  sub- 


182  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

since  the  earlier  settlements  of  the  American  colonies, .  the 
climate  and  the  institutions  of  the  New  World  have  effected 
important  modifications  in  the  character  as  well  as  the  physique 
of  the  descendants  of  the  settlers,  why,  then,  with  a  climate  so 
unessentially  dissimilar,  if  it  be  not  for  the  institutions  which 
are  fundamentally  dissimilar,  has  this  change  been  so  much  less 
favorable  to  material  prosperity  in  Virginia  than  in  the  adjoin- 
ing States  ?  The  people  of  the  free  States,  with  as  great  differ- 
ences of  origin  between  themselves  as  between  the  majority  of 
them  and  the  majority  of  Virginians,  are  now  comparative- 
ly homogeneous  in  the  elements  of  character  which  lead  to 
prosperity.  Is  the  difference  of  blood  between  them  and  those 
of  Virginia,  sufficient  to  account  for  the  differences  in  character 
assumed  to  be  found  on  crossing  the  line  of  freedom  and  slavery? 
But  not  one-tenth  certainly,  probably  not  one-thousandth,  of  the 
fathers  of  Virginia  were  of  gentle  blood,  as  those  who  take  this 
ground  seem  to  assume.  The  majority  of  them  were  sold  and 
bought  as  laborers.  There  is  no  evidence  that  those  who  were 
gentle  born,  were  less  endowed  with  the  disposition  to  gain 
wealth  than  their  fellow-countrymen  who  settled  New  England, 
or  the  Dutch  of  New  York,  or  the  Swedes  and  Germans  that 

jugation  of  Achaia  by  the  Consul  Mummius.  The  dignity  and  energy  of  the 
Roman  character,  conspicuous  in  war  and  in  politics,  were  not  easily  tamed 
and  adjusted  to  the  arts  of  industry  and  literature.  The  degenerate  and  pliant 
Greeks,  on  the  contrary,  excelled  in  the  handicraft  and  polite  professions.  We 
learn  from  the  vigorous  invective  of  Juvenal,  that  they  were  the  most  useful 
and  capable  of  servants,  whether  as  pimps  or  professors  of  rhetoric.  Obsequi- 
ous, dexterous  and  ready,  the  versatile  Greeks  monopolized  the  business  of 
teaching,  publishing,  and  manufacturing  in  the  Roman  Empire — allowing  their 
masters  ample  leisure  for  the  service  of  the  State,  in  the  Senate  or  in  the  field. 
The  people  of  the  northern  States  of  this  Confederacy  exhibit  the  same  aptitude 
for  the  arts  of  industry.  They  excel  as  clerks,  mechanics,  and  tradesmen, 
and  they  have  monopolized  the  business  of  teaching,  publishing,  and  ped- 
dling." 


THE     ECONOMY     OF     VIRGINIA.  183 

contributed  so  largely  to  the  settlement  of  New  Jersey  and 
Pennsylvania — the  contrary  is,  in  fact,  very  obvious.  That  the 
few  people  of  gentle  blood  had  a  paramount  influence  upon  the 
character  of  the  province,  through  their  legislative  and  social 
power,  I  do  not  deny ;  indeed,  I  believe  that  through  their 
exercise  of  this  power  and  through  a  similar  undemocratic, 
uneconomical  and  unjust,  though  not  unpardonable,  exercise  of 
power  at  the  present  time,  by  a  part  of  the  people  over  the 
remainder,  the  character  of  the  whole  has  been  unfavorably 
affected ;  and  to  this  despotism  and  this  submission  to  injustice, 
it  may  not  be  unreasonable  to  attribute  whatever  want  of  prospe- 
rity there  is  in  Virginia,  when  compared  with  the  States  where 
such  causes  have  been  wanting  or  have  been  less. 

By  any  man  whose  own  mind  is  not  fettered  by  the  system,  or 
who  is  not  very  greatly  affected  by  prejudice  or  by  self-interest, 
in  sustaining  the  system,  it  is  difficult  for  me  to  believe  that 
this  cause  must  not  be  considered  far  more  satisfactory  than  any 
other  that  I  have  ever  heard  suggested. 

There  are  many  gentlemen  who  believe,  I  doubt  not,  with 
perfect  sincerity,  Slavery  to  have  been,  and  to  be,  a  blessing  to 
both  the  white  and  to  the  black  people  of  the  State ;  but  the 
great  reasons  of  their  devotion  to  the  system  are,  so  far  as  I 
have  learned  them,  rather  prospective  than  otherwise,  after 
all.  They  believe  there  are  seeds,  at  present  almost  inert,  of 
disaster  at  the  North,  against  which  Slavery  will  be  their 
protection ;  indications  that  these  are  already  beginning  to  be 
felt  or  anticipated  by  prophetic  minds,  they  think  they  see  in 
the  demands  for  "  Land  Limitation,"  in  the  anti-rent  troubles, 
in  strikes  of  workmen,  in  the  distress  of  emigrants  at  the 
eddies   of  their   current,    in   diseased   philanthropy,  in   radical 


184  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

democracy,  and  in  the  progress  of  socialistic  ideas  in  general. 
The  North,  say  they,  has  progressed  under  the  high  pressure 
of  unlimited  competition ;  as  the  population  grows  denser,  there 
will  be  terrific  explosions,  disaster,  and  ruin,  while  they  will  ride 
quietly  and  safely  at  the  anchor  of  Slavery.  What  they 
suppose  to  be  the  cause  of  the  sad  waste  of  natural  wealth,  what 
the  necessity  of  the  ignorance  and  poverty  of  the  poor  white 
people,  what  the  reason  that  capital  is  not  attracted  by  the 
superior  soundness  of  their  form  of  government  and  society, 
except  it  may  be  the  stupidity  of  capitalists,  I  may  very  probably 
have  failed  to  ascertain,  because  of  the  general  disinclination 
they  have  to  converse  with  a  Northerner  on  this  topic.  The 
only  distinct  answer  that  I  have  received  has  been,  that  it  is 
not  Slavery,  for  nothing  is  more  evident  to  them,  although  it 
may  not  be  so  to  a  stranger,  than  that  Slavery  is  a  blessing 
everywhere,  and  always  (I  quote,  as  far  as  convenient,  the  words 
that  have  been  addressed  to  me)  to  the  slave,  in  Christianizing 
and  civilizing  him ;  to  the  master,  in  cultivating  those  habits  of 
charitable  feeling  which  the  presence  of  the  weak,  the  poor,  and 
the  dependent  are  always  suggesting,  and  in  cherishing  in  him 
that  commanding  elevation  of  character  and  administrative 
power  which  is  claimed  to  have  always  distinguished  the  owners 
of  slaves,  and  the  value  of  which  they  deem  to  have  always 
been  apparent  in  our  national  statesmanship.  An  institution 
which  they  know  has  such  good  influences,  and  which  is  so 
favorable  to  political  success,  they  cannot  believe  to  be 
destructive  to  industrial  energy  and  effective  of  commercial 
dependence.  There  is  nothing  essentially  productive  in  com- 
petition ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  evident  that  the  work  of  many 
laborers  must  be  more  profitable  when  directed  by  one  controlling 


THE     ECONOMY     OF     VIRGINIA.  185 

mind,  than  when  independent  and  uncombined ;  therefore,  say 
they,  slave-labor  must  be  cheaper  than  free-labor.  In  every 
way,  they  are  convinced  that  Slavery  is,  or  should  be,  and  can 
be  made,  a  great  advantage  and  blessing  to  them,  and,  therefore, 
by  God's  grace,  they  are  determined  to  maintain  and  defend  it 
as  their  fathers  did,  and  to  bequeath  it,  as  their  fathers  did 
to  them,  to  their  children,  unimpaired  and  unmitigated,  an 
inheritance  forever. 

Having  confidence  myself  that  all  the  fatal  dangers,  appre- 
hended for  Northern  society,  may  be  and  will  be  anticipated  and 
provided  against  by  measures  already  under  consideration ;  and 
doubting  if  Slavery,  while  it  prevents  popular  education,  offers 
sufficient  precaution  against  them,  I  think  it  is  to  be  established 
convincingly,  that  Slavery  alone  is  a  sufficient  cause,  at  this 
time,  to  account  for  any  difference  there  may  be  between  the 
value  of  property  and  all  commercial  and  industrial  prosperity, 
in  Virginia  and  the  neighboring  free  States. 

COST  AND  VALUE  OF  LABOR. 

Several  thousand  slaves  were  hired  in  Eastern  Virginia,  during 
the  time  of  my  visit  there.  The  wages  paid  for  able  working- 
men,  sound,  healthy,  in  good  condition,  and  with  no  especial 
vices,  from  twenty  to  thirty  years  old,  Avere  from  $110  to  $140; 
the  average,  as  nearly  as  I  could  ascertain,  from  very  extended 
inquiry,  being  $120  per  year,  with  board  and  lodging,  and 
certain  other  expenses.  These  wages  must  represent  exactly 
the  cost  of  slave-labor,  because  any  considerations  which  would 
prevent  the  owner  of  a  slave  disposing  of  his  labor  for  those 
wages,  when  the  labor  for  his  own  purposes  would  not  be  worth 
as  much,  are  so  many  hindrances  upon  the  free  disposal  of  his 


186  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

property,  and  thereby  deduct  from  its  actual  value,  as  measured 
with  money. 

As  the  large  majority  of  slaves  are  employed  in  agricultural 
labor,  and  many  of  those,  hired  at  the  prices  I  have  mentioned, 
are  taken  directly  from  the  labor  of  the  farm,  and  are  skilled  in 
no  other,  these  wages  represent  the  cost  of  agricultural  labor  in 
Eastern  Virginia. 

In  New  York,  the  usual  wages  for  similar  men,  if  Americans, 
white  or  black,  are  exactly  the  same  in  the  money  part ;  for 
Irish  or  German  laborers  the  most  common  wages  are  $10  per 
month,  for  summer,  and  $8  per  month,  for  winter,  or  from  $96 
to  $120  a  year,  the  average  being  about  $108. 

The  hirer  has,  in  addition  to  paying  wages  for  the  slave,  to 
feed  and  to  clothe  him ;  the  free  laborer  requires  also  to  be 
boarded,  but  not  to  be  clothed  by  his  employer.  The  opinion  is 
universal  in  Virginia  that  the  slaves  are  better  fed  than  the 
Northern  laborers.  This  is,  however,  a  mistake,  and  we  must 
consider  that  the  board  of  the  Northern  laborer  would  cost  at 
least  as  much  more  as  the  additional  cost  of  clothing  to  the 
slave.  Comparing  man  with  man,  with  reference  simply  to  equali- 
ty of  muscular  power  and  endurance,  I  think,  all  these  things 
considered,  the  wages  for  common  laborers  are  twenty-five  per 
cent,  higher  in  Virginia  than  in  New  York.  But  let  it  be 
supposed  they  are  equal. 

LOSS    OF   PROFIT    TO    THE    EMPLOYEE,    FROJt    THE    ILLNESS    OR   DISA- 
BILITY, REAL  OR  COUNTERFEITED,  OF  THE  LABORER  TO  WORK. 

This,  to  the  employer  of  free  laborers,  need  be  nothing.  To 
the  slave-master  it  is  of  varying  consequence :  sometimes  small, 
often  excessively  embarrassing,  and  always  a  subject  of  anxiety 


THE     ECONOMY     OF     VIRGINIA.  187 

and  suspicion.  I  have  never  made  the  inquiry  on  any  planta- 
tion where  as  many  as  twenty  negroes  were  employed  together, 
that  I  have  not  ascertained  that  one  or  more  of  the  field-hands 
was  not  at  work  on  account  of  some  illness,  strain,  bruise  or 
wound,  of  which  he  or  she  was  complaining ;  and  in  such  cases 
I  have  hardly  ever  heard  the  proprietor  or  overseer  fail  to  ex- 
press his  suspicion  that  the  invalid  was  really  as  well  able  to 
work  as  any  one  else  on  the  plantation.  It  is  said  to  be  nearly 
as  difficult  to  form  a  satisfactory  diagnosis  of  negroes'  disorders, 
as  it  is  of  infants',  because  their  imagination  of  symptoms  is  so 
vivid,  and  because  not  the  smallest  reliance  is  to  be  placed  on 
their  accounts  of  what  they  have  felt  or  done.  If  a  man  is 
really  ill,  he  fears  lest  he  should  be  thought  to  be  simulating, 
and  therefore  exaggerates  all  his  pains,  and  locates  them 
in  whatever  he  supposes  to  be  the  most  vital  parts  of  his 
system. 

Frequently  the  invalid  slaves  will  neglect  or  refuse  to 
use  the  remedies  prescribed  for  their  recovery.  They  will 
conceal  pills,  for  instance,  under  their  tongue,  and  declare 
they  have  swallowed  them,  when,  from  their  producing 
no  effect,  it  will  be  afterwards  evident  that  they  have 
not.  This  general  custom  I  heard  ascribed  to  habit,  ac- 
quired when  they  were  not  very  disagreeably  ill,  and  were 
loth  to  be  made  quite  well  enough  to  have  to  go  to  work 
again. 

Amusing  incidents,  illustrating  this  difficulty,  I  have  heard 
narrated,  showing  that  the  slave  rather  enjoys  getting  a  severe 
wound  that  lays  him  up : — he  has  his  hand  crushed  by  the  fall 
of  a  piece  of  timber,  and  after  the  pain  is  alleviated,  is  heard  to 
exclaim,  "  Bress  der  Lord — der  haan  b'long  to  masser — don't 


188  OUR    SLAVE     STATES 

.  reckon    dis    chile    got    no    more    corn   to    hoe    dis   yaar,   no 
how."* 

Mr.  H.,  of  North  Carolina,  observed  to  me,  in  relation  to 
this  difficulty,  that  a  man  who  had  had  much  experience  with 
negroes  could  generally  tell,  with  a  good  deal  of  certainty,  by 
their  tongue,  and  their  pulse,  and  their  general  aspect,  whether 
they  were  really  ill  or  not. 

''Last  year,"  said  he,  "I  hired  out  one  of  my  negroes  to  a 
rail-road  contractor.  I  suppose  he  found  that  he  had  to  work 
harder  than  he  would  on  the  plantation,  and  became  discon- 
tented, and  one  night  he  left  the  camp  without  asking  leave. 
The  next  clay  he  stopped  at  a  public-house,  and  told  the  people 
he  had  fallen  sick  working  on  the  rail-road,  and  was  going  home 
to  his  master.  They  suspected  he  had  run  away,  and,  as  he  had 
no  pass,  they  arrested  him  and  sent  him  to  the  jail.  In  the 
night  the  sheriff  sent  me  word  that  there  was  a  boy,  who  said  he 
belonged  to  me,  in  the  jail,  and  he  was  very  sick  indeed,  and  I 
had  better  come  and  take  care  of  him.  I  immediately  suspected 
how  it  was,  and,  as  I  was  particularly  engaged,  I  did  not  go  near 
him  till  towards  night,  the  next  day.  When  I  came  to  look  at 
him,  and  heard  his  story,  I  felt  quite  sure  in  my  own  mind  that 
he  .was  not  sick  ;  but,  as  he  pretended  to  be  suffering  very  much,  I 
told  the  sheriff  to  give  him  plenty  of  salts  and  senna,  and  to  be 

*It  is,  perhaps,  well  I  should  say  that  this  soliloquy  was  repeated  to  me  by  a 
Virginia  planter,  as  if  it  had  occurred  within  hii  own  hearing.  A  similar  illus- 
tration of  the  pleasure  with  which  a  slave  finds  himself  exempted  from  labor, 
having  been  mentioned  in  the  "  Key  to  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  the  Eeverend  E. 
J.  Stearns,  of  St.  John's  College,  Maryland,  in  a  rejoinder  to  that  work,  thinks 
it  unnecessary  to  deny  the  truth  of  it,  but,  with  the  usual  happy  keenness  of 
clerical  controversialists,  settles  the  matter  without  being  personally  disre- 
spectful to  Mrs.  Stowe's  authority,  by  quoting  the  final  authority: — " '  No  man 
ever  hated  his  own  flesh,  but  nourishc-th  it,  and  cherisheth  it ;'  and  again, '  So 
ought  men  to  love  tbeir  wives  as  their  own  bodies.' " 


pE     ECONOMY     OF     VIRGINIA.  189 

careful  that  he  did  not  get  much  of  anything  to  eat.  The  next 
day  I  got  a  letter  from  the  contractor,  telling  me  that  my  nigger 
had  run  away,  -without  any  cause.  So  I  rode  over  to  the  jail 
again,  and  told  them  to  continue  the  same  treatment  until  the 
boy  got  a  good  deal  worse  or  a  good  deal  better.  Well,  the 
rascal  kept  it  up  for  a  week,  all  the  time  groaning  so  you'd 
think  he  couldn't  live  many  hours  longer ;  but,  after  he  had 
been  in  seven  clays,  he  all  of  a  sudden  said  he'd  got  well,  and  he 
wanted  something  to  eat.  As  soon  as  I  heard  of  it,  I  sent  them 
word  to  give  him  a  good  paddling,*  and  handcuff  him,  and  send 
him  back  to  the  rail-road.  I  had  to  pay  them  for  taking  up  a 
runaway,  besides  the  sheriff's  fees,  and  a  week's  board  of  the 
boy  to  the  county." 

But  the  same  gentleman  admitted  that  he  had  sometimes  been 
mistaken,  and  had  made  men  go  to  work  when  they  afterwards 
proved  to  be  really  ill  ;  therefore,  when  one  of  his  people  told 
him  he  was  not  able  to  work,  he  usually  thought,  "  very  likely 
he'll  be  all  the  better  for  a  day's  rest,  whether  he's  really  ill 
or  not,"  and  would  let  him  off  without  being  very  particular 
in  his  examination.  Lately  he  had  been  getting  a  new  over- 
seer, and  when  he  was  engaging  him,  he  told  him  that 
this  was  his  way.  The  overseer  replied,  "It's  my  way,  too, 
now ;    it    didn't   use    to    be,    but    I    had    a    lesson.       There 

was   a   nigger   one   day   at    Mr.   's    who    was    sulky,   and 

complaining;  he  said  he  couldn't  work.  I  looked  at  his  tongue, 
and  it  was  right  clean,  and  I  thought  it  was  nothing  but  damned 
sulkiness  so  I  paddled  him,  and  made  him  go  to  work ;  but,  two 
days  after,  he  was  under  ground.     He  was  a  good  eight  hundred 

*  Not  something  to  eat,  but  punishment  with  an  instrument  like  a 
ferule.  .  .  ... 


190  OUR     SLAVE     STATES.  # 

dollar  nigger,  and  it  was  a  lesson  to  me  about  taming  possums, 
that  I  ain't  agoing  to  forget  in  a  hurry." 

The  liability  of  women,  especially,  to  disorders  and  irregulari- 
ties which  cannot  be  detected  by  exterior  symptoms,  but  which 
may  be  easily  aggravated  into  serious  complaints,  renders  many 
of  them  nearly  valueless  for  work,  because  of  the  ease  with 
which  they  can  impose  upon  their  owners.  "  The  women  on  a 
plantation,"  said  one  extensive  Virginian  slave-owner  to  me, 
"  will  hardly  earn  their  salt,  after  they  come  to  the  breeding  age  : 
they  don't  come  to  the  field,  and  you  go  to  the  quarters  and  ask 
the  old  nurse  what's  the  matter,  and  she  says,  'Oh,  she's  not 
well,  master;  she's  not  fit  to  work,  sir  ;'  and  what  can  you  do? 
You  have  to  take  her  word  for  it  that  something  or  other  is  the 
matter  with  her,  and  you  dare  not  set  her  to  work ;  and  so  she 
lay  up  till  she  feels  like  taking  the  air  again,  and  plays  the  lady 
at  your  expense." 

I  was  on  one  plantation  where  a  woman  had  been  excused 
from  any  sort  of  labor  for  more  than  two  years,  on  the  supposi- 
tion that  she  was  dying  of  phthisis.  At  last  the  overseer  dis- 
covered that  she  was  employed  as  a  milliner  and  dress-maker  by 
all  the  other  colored  ladies  of  the  vicinity ;  and  upon  taking  her 
to  the  house,  it  was  found  that  she  had  acquired  a  remarkable 
skill  in  these  vocations.  She  was  hired  out  the  next  year  to  a 
fashionable  dress-maker  in  town,  at  handsome  wages  ;  and  as,  after 
that,  she  did  not  again  "  raise  blood,"  it  was  supposed  that 
when  she  had  done  so  before  it  had  been  by  artificial  means. 
Such  tricks  every  army  and  navy  surgeon  is  familiar  with. 

The  interruption  and  disarrangement  of  operations  of  labor, 
occasioned  by  slaves  "running  away,"  frequently  causes  great 
inconvenience  and  loss  to  those  who  employ  them.     It  is  said  to 


THE     ECONOMY     OF     VIRGINIA.  19] 

often  occur  when  no  immediate  motive  can  be  guessed  at  for  it — 
when  the  slave  has  been  well-treated,  well-fed,  and  not  over- 
worked ;  and  when  he  will  be  sure  to  sutler  hardship  from  it,  and 
be  subject  to  severe  punishment  on  his  return,  or  if  he  is  caught. 

This  is  often  mentioned  to  illustrate  the  ingratitude  and  espe- 
cial depravity  of  the  African  race.  I  should  suspect  it  to  be,  if 
it  cannot  be  otherwise  accounted  for,  the  natural  instinct  of  free- 
dom in  a  man,  working  out  capriciously,  as  the  wild  instincts  of 
domesticated  beasts  and  birds  sometimes  do. 

But  the  learned  Dr.  Cartwright,  of  the  University  of  Louisi- 
ana, bflieves  that  slaves  are  subject  to  a  peculiar  form  of  mental 
disease,  termed  by  him  Drapetomania,  which,  like  a  malady  that 
cats  are  liable  to,  manifests  itself  by  an  irrestrainable  propensity 
to  run  away ;  and  in  a  work  on  the  diseases  of  negroes,  highly 
esteemed  at  the  South  for  its  patriotism  and  erudition,  he  advises 
planters  of  the  proper  preventive,  and  curative  measures  to  be 
taken  for  it. 

He  asserts  that,  "  with  the  advantage  of  proper  medical  advice, 
strictly  followed,  this  troublesome  practice  of  running  away,  that 
many  negroes  have,  can  be  almost  entirely  prevented."  Its 
symptoms  and  the  usual  empirical  practice  on  the  plantations 
are  described:  "Before  negroes  run  away,  unless  they  are 
frightened  or  panic-struck,  they  become  sulky  and  dissatisfied. 
The  cause  of  this  sulkiness  and  dissatisfaction  should  be  inquired 
into  and  removed,  or  they  are  apt  to  run  away  or  fall  into  the 
negro  consumption."  When  sulky  or  dissatisfied  without  cause, 
the  experience  of  those  having  most  practice  with  drapetomania, 
the  Doctor  thinks,  has  been  in  favor  of  "  whipping  them  out  of 
it."  It  is  vulgarly  called,  " whipping  the  devil  out  of  them"  he 
afterwards  informs  us. 


392  .OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

Another  droll  sort  of  "  indisposition,"  thought  to  be  peculiar  to 
the  slaves,  and  which  must  greatly  affect  their  value,  as  compared 
with  free  laborers,  is  described  by  Dr.  Cartwright,  as  follows : 

"Dysesthesia  ethiopica,  or  Hebetude  of  Mind  and  Obtuse 
Sensibility  of  Body.  *  *  *  From  tbe  careless  movements  of  the  indi- 
viduals affected  with  this  complaint,  they  are  apt  to  do  much  mischief, 
which  appears  as  if  intentional,  but  is  mostly  owing  to  the  stupidness 
of  mind  and  insensibility  of  the  nerves  induced  by  the  disease. 
Thus  they  break,  waste,  and  destroy  everything  they  handle — abuse 
horses  and  cattle — tear,  burn,  or  rend  their  own  clothing,  and,  paying 
no  attention  to  the  rights  of  property,  steal  others  to  replace  what 
they  have  destroyed.  They  wander  about  at  night,  and  keep  in  a 
half  nodding  state  by  day.  They  slight  their  work — cut  up*  corn, 
cane,  cotton,  and  tobacco,  when  hoeing  it,  as  if  for  pure  mischief. 
They  raise  disturbances  with  their  overseers,  and  among  their  fellow- 
servants,  without  cause  or  motive,  and  seem  to  be  insensible  to  pain 
when  subjected  to  punishment.     *     *     * 

"When  left  to  himself,  the  negro  indulges  in  his  natural  disposition 
to  idleness  and  sloth,  and  does  not  take  exercise  enough  to  expand 
his  lungs  and  vitalize  his  blood,  but  dozes  out  a  miserable  existence 
in  the  midst  of  filth  and  uncleanliness,  being  too  indolent,  and  having 
too  little  energy  of  mind,  to  provide  for  himself  proper  food  and 
comfortable  clothing  and  lodging.  The  consequence  is,  that  the  blood 
becomes  so  highly  carbonized  and  deprived  of  oxygen  that  it  not 
only  becomes  unfit  to  stimulate  the  brain  to  energy,  but  unfit  to 
stimulate  the  nerves  of  sensation  distributed  to  the  body.      *     *     * 

"  This  is  the  disease  called  Dysesthesia  (a  Greek  term  expressing  tbe  dull 
or  obtuse  sensation  that  always  attends  the  complaint).  When  roused 
from  sloth  by  the  stimulus  of  hunger,  he  takes  anything  he  can  lay  his 
hands  on,  and  tramples  on  the  rights  as  well  as  on  the  property  of  others, 
with  perfect  indifference.  When  driven  to  labor  by  the  compulsive 
power  of  the  white  man,  he  performs  the  task  assigned  to  him  in  a 
headlong,  careless  manner,  treading  down  with  his  feet  or  cutting  with 
his  hoe  the  plants  he  is  put  to  cultivate — breaking  the  tools  he  works 
with,  and  spoiling  everything  he  touches  that  can  be  injured  by  careless 
handling.  Hence  the  overseers  call  it  '  rascality,'  supposing  that  the 
mischief  is  intentionally  done.     *    *    * 

"  The  term,  '  rascality,'  given  to  this  disease  by  overseers,  is  founded 


THK     ECONOMY    OF    VIRGINIA.  193 

on  an  erroneous  hypothesis,  and  leads  to  an  incorrect  empirical  treat- 
ment, which  seldom  or  never  cures  it." 

There  are  many  complaints  described  in  Dr.  Cartwright's 
treatise,  to  which  the  negroes,  in  Slavery,  seem  to  be  peculiarly 
subject. 

"  More  fatal  than  any  other  is  congestion  of  the  lungs,  peripneumonia 
notha,  often  called  cold  plague,  etc.     *    *     * 

"  The  Frambcesia,  Piam,  or  Yaws,  is  a  contagious  disease,  communi- 
cable by  contact  among  those  who  greatly  neglect  cleanliness.  It  is 
supposed  to  be  communicable,  in  a  modified  form,  to  the  white  race, 
among  whom  it  resembles  pseudo  syphilis,  or  some  disease  of  the 
nose,  throat,  or  larynx.    *    *    *  > 

"  Negro-consumption,  a  disease  almost  unknown  to  medical  men  of 
the  Northern  States  and  of  Europe,  is  also  sometimes  fearfully  preva- 
lent among  the  slaves.  '  It  is  of  importance,'  says  the  Doctor,  '  to  know 
the  pathognomic  signs  in  its  early  stages,  not  only  in  regard  to  its 
treatment,  but  to  detect  impositions,  as  negroes,  afflicted  with  this 
complaint  are  often  for  sale  ;  the  acceleration  of  the  pulse,  on  exercise, 
incapacitates  them  for  labor,  as  they  quickly  give  out,  and  have  to  leave 
their  work.  This  induces  their  owners  to  sell  them,  although  they  may  not 
know  the  cause  of  their  inability  to  labor.  Many  of  the  negroes  brought 
South,  for  sale,  are  in  the  incipient  stages  of  this  disease ;  they  are 
found  to  be  inefficient  laborers,  and  are  sold  in  consequence  thereof. 
The  effect  of  superstition — a  firm  belief  that  he  is  poisoned  or  conjured 
— upon  the  patient's  mind,  already  in  a  morbid  state  (dyossthesia) ,  and 
his  health  affected  from  hard  usage,  over-tasking  or  exposure,  want  of 
wholesome  food,  good  clothing,  warm,  comfortable  lodging,  with  the 
distressing  idea  (sometimes)  that  he  is  an  object  of  hatred  or  dislike, 
both  to  his  master  or  fellow-servants,  and  has  no  one  to  befriend  him, 
tends  directly  to  generate  that  erythism  of  mind  which  is  the  essential 
cause  of  negro-consumption.'  *  *  *  <  Kemedies  should  be  assisted 
by  removing  the  original  cause  of  the  dissatisfaction  or  trouble  of  mind, 
and  by  using  every  means  to  make  the  patient  comfortable,  satisfied  and 
happy.'  " 

Longing  for  home  generates  a  distinct  malady,  known  to 
physicians  as  Nostalgia,  and  there  is  an  analogy  between  the 


194  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

treatment  commonly  employed  to  cure  it  and  that  recommended 
in  this  last  advice  of  Dr.  Cartwright,  which  is  very  suggestive. 

DISCIPLINE. 

Under  the  slave  system  of  labor,  discipline  must  always  be 
maintained  by  physical  power.  A  lady  of  New  York,  spending 
a  winter  in  a  Southern  city,  had  a  hired  slave-servant,  Avho,  one 
day,  refused  outright  to  perform  some  ordinary  light  domestic 
duty  required  of  her.  On  the  lady's  gently  remonstrating  with 
her,  she  immediately  replied :  "  You  can't  make  me  do  it,  and  1 
won't  do  it :  I  aint  afeard  of  you  whippin'  me."  The  servant 
was  right;  the  lady  could  not  whip  her,  and  was  too  tender- 
hearted to  call  in  a  man,  or  to  send  her  to  the  guard-house  to 
.  be  whipped,  as  is  the  custom  with  Southern  ladies,  when  their 
patience  is  exhausted,  under  such  circumstances.  She  en- 
deavored, by  kindness  and  by  appeals  to  the  girl's  good  sense, 
to  obtain  a  moral  control  over  her ;  but,  after  suffering  continual 
annoyance  and  inconvenience,  and  after  an  intense  trial  of  her 
feelings,  for  some  time,  she  was  at  length  obliged  to  go  to  her 
owner,  and  beg  him  to  come  and  take  her  away  from  the  house, 
on  any  terms.  It  was  no  better  than  haying  a  lunatic  or  a 
mischievous  and  pilfering  monomaniac  quartered  upon  her.'* 

But  often  when  courage  and  physical  power,  with  the  strength 
of  the  militia  force  and  the  army  of  the  United  States,  if 
required,  at  the  back  of  the  master,  are  not  wanting,  there  are 
a  great  variety  of  circumstances  that  make  a  resort  to  punish- 
ment inconvenient,  if  not  impossible. 

*  The  Richmond  American  has  a  letter  from  Ealeigh,  N.  C,  dated  Sept.  18 
which  says :  "  On  yesterday  morning,  a  beautiful  young  lady,  Miss  Virginia 
Frost,  daughter  of  Austin  Frost,  an  engineer  on  the  Petersburg  and  Weldon 
Rail-road,  and  residing  in  this  city,  was  shot  by  a  negro  girl,  and  killed  instantly. 
Cause — reproving  her  for  insolent  language." 


THE     ECONOMY     OF     VIRGINIA.  ■       195 

Keally  well-trained,  accomplished,  and  docile  house-servants 
are  seldom  to  be  purchased  or  hired  at  the  South,  though  they 
are  found  in  old  wealthy  families  rather  oftener  than  first-rate 
English  or  French  servants  are  at  the  North.  It  is,  doubtless,  a 
convenience  to  have  even  moderately  good  servants  who  cannot,  at 
any  time  of  their  improved  value  or  your  necessity,  demand  to 
have  their  pay  increased,  or  who  cannot  be  drawn  away  from 
you  by  prospect  of  smaller  demands  and  kinder  treatment  at 
your  neighbor's  ;  but  I  believe  few  of  those  who  are  incessantly 
murmuring  against  this  healthy  operation  of  God's  good  law  of 
supply  and  demand  would  be  willing  to  purchase  exemption  from 
it,  at  the  price  .with  which  the  masters  and  mistresses  of  the 
South  do.  They  would  pay,  to  get  a  certain  amount  of  work 
done,  three  or  four  times  as  much,  to  the  owner  of  the  best  sort 
of  hired  slaves,  as  they  do  to  the  commonest,  stupidest  Irish 
domestic  drudges  at  the  North,  though  the  nominal  wages  by  the 
week  or  year,  in  Virginia,  are  but  little  more  than  in  New  York. 

The  number  of  servants  usually  found  in  a  Southern  family, 
of  any  pretension,  always  amazes  a  Northern  lady.  In  one  that 
I  visited,  there  were  exactly  three  negroes  to  each  white,  and 
this  in  a  town,  the  negroes  being  employed  solely  in  the  house. 

A  Southern  lady,  of  an  old  and  wealthy  family,  who  had  been 
for  some  time  visiting  a  friend  of  mine  in  New  York,  said  to  her, 
as  she  was  preparing  to  return  home :  "  I  can  not  tell  you  how 
much,  after  being  in  your  house  so  long,  I  dread  to  go  home, 
and  to  have  to  take  care  of  our  servants  again.  We  have  a  much 
smaller  family  of  whites  than  you,  but  we  have  twelve  servants, 
and  your  two  accomplish  a  great  deal  more,  and  do  their  work  a 
great  deal  better  than  our  twelve.  You  think  your  girls  are 
very  stupid,  and  that  they  give  you  much  trouble :  but  it  is  as 


196  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

nothing.  There  is  hardly  one  of  our  servants  that  can  be 
trusted  to  do  the  simplest  work  without  being  stood  over.  If  I 
order  a  room  to  be  cleaned,  or  a  fire  to  be  made  in  a  distant 
chamber,  I  never  can  be  sure  I  am  obeyed  unless  I  go  there  and 
see  for  myself.  If  I  send  a  girl  out  to  get  anything  I  want  for 
preparing  the  dinner,  she  is  as  likely  as  not  to  forget  what  is 
wanted,  and  not  to  come  back  till  after  the  time  at  which  dinner 
should  be  ready.  A  hand-organ  in  the  street  will  draw  all  my 
girls  out  of  the  house ;  and  while  it  remains  near  us  I  have  no 
more  command  over  them  than  over  so  many  monkeys.  The 
parade  of  a  military  company  has  sometimes  entirely  prevented 
me  from  having  any  dinner  cooked ;  and  when  the  servants, 
standing  in  the  square  looking  at  the  soldiers,  see  my  husband 
coming  after  them,  they  only  laugh,  and  run  away  to  the  other 
side,  like  playful  children.*  And,  when  I  reprimand  them,  they 
only  say  they  don't  mean  to  do  anything  wrong,  or  they  wont 
do  it  again,  all  the  time  laughing  as  though  it  was  all  a  joke. 
They  don't  mind  it  at  all.  They  are  just  as  playful  and  careless 
as  any  willful  child ;  and  they  never  will  do  any  work  ii  you 
don't  compel  them." 

The  slave  employer,  if  he  finds  he  has  been  so  unfortunate  as 
to  hire  a  sulky  servant,  that  cannot  be  made  to  work  to  his 
advantage,  has  no  remedy  but  to  solicit  from  his  owner  a  deduc- 
tion from  the  price  he  has  agreed  to  pay  for  his  labor,  on  the 
same  ground  that  one  would  from  a  livery-stable  keeper,  if  he  had 
engaged  a  horse  to  go   a  journey,  but  found  that  he  was  not 


*  In  the  city  of  Columbia,  S.  C,  the  police  are  required  to  prevent  the  negroes 
from  running  in  this  way  after  the  military.  Any  negro  neglecting  to  leave 
the  vicinity  of  a  parade,  when  ordered  by  a  policeman  or  any  military  officer, 
is  required,  by  the  ordinance,  to  be  whipped  at  the  guard-bouse. 


THE     ECONOMY    OF     VIRGINIA.  197 

strong  or  skillful  enough  to  keep  him  upon  the  road.  But,  if  tha 
slave  is  the  property  of  his  employer,  and  becomes  "  rascally," 
the  usual  remedy  is  that  which  the  veterinary  surgeon  recom- 
mended "when  he  was  called  upon  for  advice  how  to  cure  a  balky 
horse  :  "  Sell  him,  my  lord."  "  Eascals  "  are  "  sent  South " 
from  Virginia,  for  the  cure  or  alleviation  of  their  complaint,  in 
much  greater  numbers  than  consumptives  are  from  the  more 
Northern  States. 

"  How  do  you  manage,  then,  when  a  man  misbehaves,  or  is 
sick  1"  I  have  been  often  asked  by  Southerners,  in  discussing  this 
question. 

If  he  is  sick,  I  simply  charge  against  him  every  half  day  of 
the  time  he  is  off  work,  and  deduct  it  from  his  wages.  If  he  is 
careless,  or  refuses  to  do  what  in  reason  I  demand  of  him,  I  dis- 
charge him,  paying  him  wages  to  the  time  he  leaves.  With  new 
men  in  whom  I  have  not  confidence,  I  make  a  written  agreement, 
before  witnesses,  on  engaging  them,  that  will  permit  me  to  do 
this.  As  for  "rascality,"  I  never  had  but  one  case  of  anything 
approaching  to  what  you  call  so.  A  man  insolently  contradicted 
me  in  the  field  :  I  told  him  to  leave  his  job  and  go  to  the  house, 
took  hold  and  finished  it  myself,  then  went  to  the  house,  made 
out  a  written  statement  of  account,  counted  out  the  balance  in 
money  due  him,  gave  him  the  statement  and  the  money,  and  told 
him  he  must  go.  He  knew  that  he  had  failed  of  his  duty,  and 
that  the  lav/  would  sustain  me,  and  we  parted  in  a  friendly  man- 
ner, he  expressing  regret  that  his  temper  had  driven  him  from  a 
situation  which  had  been  agreeable  and  satisfactory  to  him.  The 
probability  is,  that  this  single  experience  educated  him  so  far 
that  his  next  employer  would  have  no  occasion  to  complain  of 
his  "rascality;"    and  I  very  much   doubt  if  any  amount  of 


198  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

corporeal  punishment  would  have  improved  his  temper  in  the 
least. 

That  slaves  have  tb  be  "  humored  "  a  great  deal,  and  that  they 
very  frequently  can  not  be  made  to  do  their  master's  will,  I  have 
seen  much  evidence.  Not  that  they  often  directly  refuse  to  obey 
an  order,  but,  when  they  are  directed  to  do  anything  for  which 
they  have  a  disinclination,  they  undertake  it  in  such  a  way  that 
the  desired  result  is  sure  not  to  be  accomplished.  In  small  par- 
ticulars for  which  a  laborer's  discretion  must  be  trusted  to  in 
every-day  work,  but  more  especially  when  emergencies  require 
some  extraordinary  duties  to  be  performed,  they  are  much  less 
reliable  than  the  ordinary  run  of  laborers  employed  on  our  farms 
in  New  York.  They  can  not  be  driven  by  fear  of  punishment  to 
do  that  which  the  laborers  in  free  communities  do  cheerfully  from 
their  sense  of  duty,  self-respect,  or  regard  for  their  reputation 
and  standing  with  their  employer.  A  gentleman  who  had  some 
free  men  in  his  employment  in  Virginia,  that  he  had  procured 
in  New  York,  tbld  me  that  he  had  been  astonished,  when  a  dam 
that  he  had  been  building  began  to  give  way  in  a  freshet,  to  see 
how  much  more  readily  than  negroes  they  would  obey  his  orders, 
and  do  their  best  without  orders,  running  into  the  water  waist 
deep,  in  mid-winter,  without  any  hesitation  or  grumbling. 

The  manager  of  a  large  candle-factory  in  London,  in  which 
the  laborers  are  treated  with  an  unusual  degree  of  confidence  and 
generosity,  writes  thus  in  a  report  to  his  directors : 

"The  present  year  promises  to  be  a  very  good  one  as  regards 
profit,  in  consequence  of  the  enormous  increase  in  the  demand  for 
candles.  No  mere  driving  of  the  men  and  boys,  by  ourselves  and 
those  in  authority  under  us,  would  have  produced  the  sudden  and 
very  great  increase  of  manufacture,  necessary  for  keeping  pace  with 
this  demand.     It  has  been  effected  only  by  the  hearty  good- will  with 


THE     ECONOMY     OP     VIRGINIA.  199 

which  the  factory  has  ■worked,  the  men  and  boys  making  the  great 
extra  exertion,  which  they  saw  to  be  necessary  to  prevent  our  getting 
hopelessly  in  arrears  with  the  orders,  as  heartily  as  if  the  question 
had  been,  how  to  avert  some  difficulty  threatening  themselves  per- 
sonally. One  of  the  foremen  remarked  with  truth,  a  few  days  back : 
'To  look  on  them,  one  would  think  each  was  engaged  in  a  little 
business  of  his  own,  so  as  to  have  only  himself  affected  by  the  re- 
sults of  his  work.'  " 

A  farmer  in  Lincolnshire,  England,  told  me  that  once,  during 
an  extraordinary  harvest,  season,  he  had  had  a  number  of  labor- 
ers at  work  without  leaving  the  field  or  taking  any  repose  for 
sixty  hours — he  himself  working  with  them,  and  eating  and 
drinking  only  with  them  during  all  the  time.  Such  services  men 
may  give  voluntarily,  from  their  own  regard  to  the  value  of 
property  to  be  saved  by  it,  or  for  the  purpose  of  establishing 
their  credit  as  worth  good  wages ;  but  to  require  it  of  slaves 
would  be  intensely  cruel,  if  not  actually  impossible.  A  man  can 
work  excessively  on  his  own  impulse  as  much  easier  than  he  can 
be  driven  to  by  another,  as  ahorse  travels  easier  in  going  towards 
his  accustomed  stable  than  in  going  from  it.  I  mean — and  every 
man  who  has  ever  served  as  a  sailor  or  a  soldier  will  know  that 
it  is  no  imaginary  effect — that  the  actual  fatigue,  the  waste  of 
bodily  energy,  the  expenditure  of  the  physical  capacity,  is  greater 
in  one  case  than  the  other. 

Sailors  and  soldiers  both,  are  led  by  certain  inducements  to 
place  themselves  within  certain  limits,  and  for  a  certain  time, 
both  defined  by  contract,  in  a  condition  resembling,  in  many 
particulars,  that  of  slaves ;  and,  although  they  are  bound  by 
their  voluntary  contract  and  by  legal  and  moral  considerations  to 
obey  orders,  the  fact  that  force  is  also  used  to  secure  their 
obedience  to  their  officers,  scarcely  ever  fails  to  produce  in  them 


200  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

the  identical  vices  which  are  complained  of  in  slaves.  They  obey 
the  letter,  but  defeat  the  intention  of  orders  that  do  not  please 
them,  they  are  improvident,  wasteful,  reckless :  they  sham  ill- 
ness, and  as  Dr.  Cartwright  gives  specific  medical  appellations  to 
discontent,  laziness,  and  rascality,  so  among  sailors  and  soldiers, 
when  men  suddenly  find  themselves  ill  and  unable  to  do  their 
duty  in  times  of  peculiar  danger,  or  when  unusual  labor  is 
required,  they  are  humorously  said  to  be  -suffering  under  an 
attack  of  the  powder-fever,  the  cape-fever,  the  ice-fever,  the 
coast-fever,  or  the  reefing-fever.  The  counteracting  influences 
to  these  vices,  which  it  is  the  first  effort  of  every  good  officer  to 
foster,  are,  first,  regard  to  duty ;  second,  patriotism ;  third, 
esprit  du  corps,  or  professional  pride;  fourth,  self-respect,  or 
personal  pride;  fifth,  self-interest,  hope  of  promotion,  or  of 
bounty,  or  of  privileges  in  mitigation  of  their  hard  service,  as 
reward  for  excellence.  Things  are  never  quickly  done  at  sea, 
unless  they  are  done  with  a  will,  or  "  cheerly,"  as  the  sailor's 
word  is — that  is,  cheerfully.  An  army  is  never  effective  in  the 
field  when  depressed  in  its  morale. 

None  of  these  promptings  to  excellence  can  be  operative, 
except  in  a  very  low  degree,  to  counteract  the  indolent  and 
vicious  tendencies  of  the  Slavery,  much  more  pure  than  the 
slavery  of  the  army  or  the  ship,  by  which  the  exertions  of  the 
Virginia  laborer  are  obtained  for  his  employer. 

It  is  very  common,  among  the  Virginians,  to  think  that  the 
relation  of  free-laborers  to  their  employers  is,  by  the  effect  of 
circumstances,  rendered  very  little  less  slavish  than  that  of  their 
own  slaves  to  them.  It  is  true  that  in  many  respects  the 
position  of  agricultural  laborers,  in  some  parts  of  England  and 
other  countries   (where  the  land  is  owned  and  rented  only  in 


THE     ECONOMY     OF     VIRGINIA.  201 

excessively  large  quantities,  and  the  principle  of  competition 
has,  therefore,  very  little  influence  to  counteract  the  power  of 
the  capitalists  to  prevent  a  man's  getting  his  living  by  labor, 
except  on  their  conditions),  approaches,  in  the  degree  of  their 
moral  subjection,  to  that  of  slaves. 

But  this  is  true  only  in  a  very  few  districts,  nowhere  in  the 
United  States,  unless  it  be  in  the  Slave  States,  where  sometimes 
similar  causes  produce  somewhat  similar  effects  upon  the  poor 
whites.  And,  everywhere,  the  services  rendered  by  the  free- 
laborers  are  rendered  not  from  fear  of  punishment,  are  claimed 
not  by  right  of  force,  but  are  rendered  in  obedience  to,  and 
claimed  by  express  right  of,  a  contract  voluntarily  made :  conse- 
quently, compared  with  that  of  the  slave,  their  labor  is  actively, 
cheerfully,  and  discreetly  given.  Circumstances  may  have  made 
it  necessary  for  the  laborer  to  accept  the  terms  offered  by  the 
employer ;  but  those  circumstances  no  more  constitute  slavery 
than  do  the  circumstances,  which  induce  merchants  and  manufac- 
turers in  towns  to  pay  what  they  deem  extravagant  prices  for 
flour,  render  them  the  slaves  of  the  farmers,  who  say  to  them, 
"  Pay  these  prices,  or  go  without." 

It  is  a  very  low  mind  that  cannot  appreciate  the  difference 
between  services  rendered  from  such  motives  and  under  such 
obligations,  honorable,  manly,  and  just  obligations,  voluntarily 
entered  into,  and  the  services  of  a  slave,  rendered  from  fear  that 
he  shall  be  whipped  if  he  does  not  render  them. 

The  employer  of  a  free-laborer  no  more  dare  whip  him  than 
the  laborer  dare  whip  the  employer.  Their  rights  are  equal,  in 
all  respects,  before  the  law,  and  the  claim  of  the  laborer  to  his 
stipulated  wages,  his  tacitly  stipulated  diet  and  lodging,  is  just 

as  good,  and  renders  him  just  as  truly  the  owner  of  his  employer, 
9* 


202  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

as  the  claim  of  the  employer  upon  the  free-laborer  for  his 
stipulated  measure,  by  days  or  months,  of  muscular  labor,  and 
his  tacitly  stipulated  exercise  of  skill  and  discretion,  render  him 
the  owner  of  his  employe.  The  man  who  would  work  cheer- 
fully and  to  the  best  of  his  discretion,  for  tbe  employer,  in  one 
case  is  a  fool ;  the  man  who  would  not  work  cheerfully  and  to 
the  best  of  his  discretion,  for  his  employer,  in  the  other  is  dis- 
honest and  imprudent. 

The  following  is  from  the  organ  of  the  New  York  city 
Know  Nothings,  of  Feb.  21,  1855:  "If  to  rise  with  the  lark 
and  labor  the  live-long  day,  saddled  with  care,  loaded  down 
with  anxiety,  until  we  sink  under  the  burden,  is  freedom,  then 
we  are  not  slaves.  If  to  do  half  this  work,  without  any  of 
its  cares,  or  troubles,  with  the  full  quota  of  pleasure,  is  the 
want  of  it,  then  who  would  be  free?" 

Such  a  view  of  life  is  not  only  disgraceful  to  a  man,  but 
the  prevalence  of  such  ideas,  however  patriotic  may  be  the 
foundation  on  which  they  have  been  cultivated,  is  most  per- 
nicious to  the  character  of  our  own  laboring-class,  and  to 
all  industry  into  which  competition  can  enter.  There  are  some 
badly-educated  American  women  who  choose  to  die  as  seam- 
stresses, rather  than  to  live  as  cooks  or  chamber-maids,  because 
they  are  taught  by  such  writers  that  the  position  of  a  servant, 
or  of  those  who  sell  their  labor  and  skill  by  measure  of  time 
and  not  by  measure  of  amount,  is  worse  than  that  of  slaves. 
Even  prostitution  is  felt  to  be  less  a  disgrace  than  this  false 
parallel  to  Slavery,  and  so,  unconsciously  deluded  by  this  false 
analogy,  they  answer  this  writer's  question,  actually  preferring 
death  to  this  imaginary  degradation. 

"It  is  with  dogs,"  says  the  best  authority  on  the  subject,  "as 


THE     ECONOMY     OF     VIRGINIA.  203 

it  is  with  horses ;  no  work  is  so  well  done  as  that  which  is  done 
cheerfully."*  And  it  is  with  men,  both  black  and  white,  as  it 
is  with  horses  and  with  dogs ;  it  is  even  more  so,  because  the 
strength  and  cunning  of  a  man  is  less  adapted  to  being  "  broken" 
to  the  will  of  another  than  that  of  either  dogs  or  horses. 

The  writer,  whose  opinion,  that  Slavery  is  a  better  system  for 
the  laborer  than  the  system  of  Northern  States,  I  have  just 
quoted,  estimates  that  the  labor  of  a  slave  is  only  half  that,  in 
a  day,  of  a  man  actuated  by  anxiety  for  his  own  advantage 
at  his  work.  If  it  were  not  that  Slavery,  present  at  the  South 
and  past  in  our  own  land  and  the  lands  where  most  of  our 
laborers  have  been  educated,  had  an  influence  still  to  make  labor 
a  less  respected  commodity  than  most  others  in  our  market, 
in  consequence  of  which  the  mutual  obligations  of  capitalist 
and  laborer  are  sometimes  less  definitely  felt  than  they  should 
be,  I  think  no  one  would  be  surprised  to  learn  that  this  estimate 
of  the  difference  in  the  amount  of  work  accomplished  in  a  day, 
by  voluntary  laborers  and  slave  laborers,  was  not  in  the  slightest 
degree  extravagantly  expressed.  But  upon  this  point  I  shall 
now  give  some  exact  information. 

OF     THE     COMPARATIVE     AMOUNT     OF     WORK    ACCOMPLISHED    IN    A 
GIVEN    TIME    BY   FREE    AND    SLAVE    LABORERS. 

Mr.  T.  R.  G-riscoin,  of  Petersburg,  Virginia,  stated  to  me,  that 
he  once  took  accurate  account  of  the  labor  expended  in  harvest- 
ing a  large  field  of  wheat ;  and  the  result  was  that  one  quarter 
of  an  acre  a  day  was  secured  for  each  able  hand  engaged  in 
cradling,  raking,  and  binding.  The  crop  was  light,  yielding  not 
over  six  bushels  to  the  acre^    In  New  York  a   gang   of  fair 

*  Lieut.  Col.  W.  N.  Hutchinson,  on  Dog  Breaking. 


204  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

cradlers  and  binders  would  be  expected,  under  ordinary  circum- 
stances, to  secure  a  crop  of  wheat,  yielding  from  twenty  to  thirty 
bushels  to  the  acre,  at  the  rate  of  about  two  acres  a  day  for 
each  man. 

Mr.  Griscom  formerly  resided  in  New  Jersey ;  and  since  living 
in  Virginia  has  had  the  superintendence  of  very  large  agricul- 
tural operations,  conducted  with  slave-labor.  After  I  had,  in  a 
letter,  intended  for  publication,  made  use  of  this  testimony,  I 
called  upon  him  to  ask  if  he  would  object  to  my  giving  his  name 
with  it.  He  was  so  good  as  to  permit  me  to  do  so,  and  said 
that  I  might  add  that  the  ordinary  waste  in  harvesting  wheat  in 
Virginia,  through  the  carelessness  of  the  negroes,  beyond  that 
which  occurs  in  the  hands  of  ordinary  Northern  laborers,  is  equal 
in  value  to  what  a  Northern  farmer  would  often  consider  a  satis- 
factory profit  on  his  crop.  He  also  wished  me  to  say  that  it 
was  his  deliberate  opinion,  formed  not  without  much  and  accu- 
rate observation,  that  four  Virginia  slaves  do  not,  when  engaged 
in  ordinary  agricultural  operations,  accomplish  as  much,  on  an 
average,  as  one  ordinary  free  farm  laborer  in  New  Jersey. 

Mr.  Griscom  is  well  known  at  Petersburg  as  a  man  remark- 
able for  reliability,  accuracy,  and  preciseness ;  and  no  man's 
judgment  on  this  subject  could  be  entitled  to  more  respect. 

Another  man,  who  had  superintended  labor  of  the  same  cha- 
racter at  the  North  and  in  Virginia,  whom  I  questioned  closely, 
agreed  entirely  with  Mr.  Griscom,  believing  that  four  negroes 
had  to  be  supported  on  every  farm  in  the  State  to  accomplish 
the  same  work  which  was  ordinarily  done  by  one  free  laborer  in 
New  York. 

A  clergyman  from  Connecticut,  who  had  resided  for  many 
years  in  Virginia,  told  me  that  what  a  slave  expected  to  spend  a 


THE    ECONOMY    OF    VIRGINIA.  205 

day  upon,  a  Northern  laborer  would,  he  was  confident,  usually 
accomplish  by  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning'. 

In  a  letter  on  this  subject,  most  of  the  facts  given  in  which  have 
been  already  narrated  in  this  volume,  written  from  Virginia  to  the 
New  York  Daily  Times,  I  expressed  the  conviction  that,  at  the 
most,  not  more  than  one-half  as  much  labor  was  ordinarily  ac- 
complished in  Virginia  by  a  certain  number  of  slaves,  in  a  given 
time,  as  by  an  equal  number  of  free  laborers  in  New  York.  The 
publication  of  this  letter  induced  a  number  of  persons  to  make 
public  the  conclusions  of  their  own  experience  or  observations  on 
this  subject.  So  far  as  I  know,  these,  in  every  case,  sustained 
my  conclusions,  or,  if  any  doubt  was  expressed,  it  was  that  I  had 
under-estimated  the  superior  economy  of  free-labor.  As  afford- 
ing evidence  more  valuable  than  my  own  on  this  important 
point,  from  the  better  opportunities  of  forming  sound  judgment, 
which  a  residence  at  different  times,  in  both  Virginia  and  a  free 
State  had  given  the  writers,  I  have  reprinted,  in  an  appendix, 
two  of  these  letters,  together  with  a  quantity  of  other  testimony 
from  Southern  witnesses  on  this  subject,  which  I  beg  the  reader, 
who  has  any  doubt  of  the  correctness  of  my  information,  not  to 
neglect. 

"  DRIVING." 

On  mentioning  to  a  gentleman  in  Virginia,  who  believed 
that  slave-labor  was  better  and  cheaper  than  free-labor,  Mr. 
Griscom's  observation,  he  replied:  that  without  doubting  the 
correctness  of  the  statement  of  that  particular  instance,  he 
was  sure  that  if  four  men  did  not  harvest  more  than  an 
acre  of  wheat  a  day,  they  could  not  have  been  well  driven. 
He   knew   that,  if    properly   driven,    threatened   with    punish- 


206  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

merit,  and  punished  if  necessary,  negroes  would  do  as  much 
work  as  it  was  possible  for  any  white  man  to  do.  The  same 
gentleman,  however,  at  another  time,  told  me  that  negroes 
were  very  seldom  punished,  not  oftener,  he  presumed,  than 
apprentices  were,  at  the  North ;  that  the  driving  of  them  was 
generally  left  to  overseers,  who  were  the  laziest  and  most 
worthless  dogs  in  the  world,  frequently  not  demanding  higher 
wages  for  their  services  than  one  of  the  negroes,  they  were 
given  to  manage,  might  he  hired  out  for.  Another  gentle- 
man told  me  that  he  would  rather,  if  the  law  would  permit 
it,  have  some  of  his  negroes  for  overseers,  than  any  white 
man  he  had  ever  been  able  to  obtain  in  that  capacity. 

Another  planter,  whom  I  requested  to  examine  a  letter 
on  the  subject,  that  I  bad  prepared  for  the  Daily  Times,  that 
he  might,  if  he  could,  refute  my  calculations,  or  give  me 
any  facts  of  an  opposite  character,  after  reading  it  said: 
"  The  truth  is,  that  in  general,  a  slave  does  not  do  half  the 
work  he  easily  might ;  and  which,  by  being  harsh  enough 
with  him,  he  can  be  made  to  do.  When  I  came  into  pos- 
session of  my  plantation,  I  soon  found  the  overseer  then 
upon  it  was  good  for  nothing,  and  told  him  I  had  no 
further  occasion  for  his  services :  I  then  went  to  driving  the 
negroes  myself.  In  the  morning,  when  I  went  out,  one  of 
them  came  up  to  me  and  asked  what  work  he  should  go 
about.  I  told  him  to  go  into  the  swamp  and  cut  some 
wood.  'Well,  massa,'  said  he,.  '  s'pose  you  wants  me  to  do 
kordins  we's  been  use  to  doin' ;  ebery  niggar  cut  a  ,cord  a 
day.'  'A  cord!  that's  what  you  have  been  used  to  doing, 
is  it  V  said  I.  '  Yes,  massa,  dat's  wot  dey  always  makes  a 
niggar   do    roun'   heah — a    cord   a   day,   dat's  allers    de    task.' 


THE     ECONOMY     OF     VIRGINIA.  207 

'  Well,  now,  old  man,'*  said  I,  '  you  go  and  cut  me  two  cords 
to-day.'  'Oh,  massa!  two  cords!  Nobody  couldn  do  dat. 
Oh!  massa,  clat's  too  hard !  Nebber  heard  o' nobody's  cuttin' 
more  'n  a  cord  o'  wood  in  a  day,  roun'  heah.  ISTo  nigger  couldn' 
do  it.'  '  Well,  old  man,  you  have  two  cords  of  wood  cnt 
to-night,  or  to-morrow  morning  you  shall  get  two  hundred 
lashes — that's  all  there  is  about  it.  So,  look  sharp!'  And 
he  did  it,  and  ever  since  no  negro  has  ever  cut  less  than  two 
cords  a  day  for  me,  though  my  neighbors  never  get  but  one  cord. 
It  was  just  so  with  a  great  many  other  things — mauling  rails 
— I  always  have  two  hundred  rails  mauled  in  a  day ;  just 
twice  what  it  is  the  custom  of  the  country  to  expect  of  a 
negro,  and  just  twice  as  many  as  my  negroes  had  been  made 
to  do  before  I  managed  them  myself. 

This  only  makes  it  more  probable  that  the  amount  of  labor 
ordinarily  and  generally  performed  by  slaves  in  Virginia  is  very 
small,  compared  with  that  done  by  the  laborers  of  the  free  States, 
and  confirms  the  correctness  of  the  estimates  that  I  have  given. 

These  estimates,  let  it  be  recollected,  in  conclusion,  are  all 
deliberately  and  carefully  made  by  gentlemen  of  liberal  education, 
who  have  had  unusual  facilities  of  observing  both  at  the  North 
and  at  the  South — gentlemen  who  own  or  employ  slaves  them- 
selves, and  who  sustain  Southern  designs  on  the  political  ques- 
tions connected  with  slavery.  I  have  not  given  them  because 
they  were  extreme,  but  because  I  could  obtain  no  others  equally 
exact.     The  conclusion  to  which  they  directly  point  is,  that  the 


*  "  Old  Man,"  is  a  common  title  of  address  to  any  middle-aged  negro  in 
Virginia,  whose  name  is  not  known.  "  Boy"  and  "  Old  Man"  may  be  applied 
to  the  same  person.  Of  course,  in  this  case,  the  slave  is  not  to  be  supposed  to 
bo  beyond  his  prime  of  strength. 


208  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

cost  of  any  certain  amount  of  labor,  by  measure,  of  tasks  and 
not  of  time,  is  between  three  and  four  hundred  per  cent,  higher  in 
Virginia  than  in  the  free  States.  To  this  is  to  be  added  the  cost 
of  clothing  the  slaves,  of  the  time  they  lose  in  sickness,  or 
otherwise,  and  of  all  they  pilfer,  damage,  and  destroy  through 
carelessness,  improvidence,  recklessness,  and  "rascality." 

Labor  is  the  creator  of  wealth.  There  can  be  no  honest 
wealth,  no  true  prosperity  without  it ;  and  in  exact  proportion  to 
the  economy  of  labor  is  the  cost  of  production  and  the  accumu- 
lation of  profit  upon  the  capital  used  in  its  employment. 

Let  any  one  allow  as  much  as  he  can,  in  view  of  the  testimony, 
for  exaggeration  in  these  estimates,  and  reduce  them  accord- 
ingly. It  seems  to  me  hardly  possible  that  he  should  be  able 
still  to  doubt,  that  in  the  additional  cost  of  labor  alone,  a 
grand,  if  not  all-sufficient  cause  may  be  found  for  the  acknow- 
ledged slow  progress  and  the  poverty  of  Virginia,  compared 
with  the  free  States. 

WHY    FREE-LABOR   COMPETITION     DOES    NOT     DRIVE     OUT     SLAVERY 
IN    VIRGINIA. 

Considering  that  the  wages  of  a  week's  labor  would  pay  for 
the  transportation  of  a  laborer  from  the  free  States  to  a  communi- 
ty where  slave-labor  predominates,  it  might,  at  the  first  thought 
upon  the  matter,  appear  impossible  that  there  could  be,  for  any 
length  of  time,  any  essential  difference  in  the  cost  of  labor  be- 
tween the  two  districts.  The  law  of  supply  and  demand  is  not, 
indeed,  inoperative  against  slavery ;  it  is  a  constant  counteract- 
ing influence  to  its  evils,  and,  if  it  were  not  for  the  internal  slave- 
trade,  which  makes  slaves  valuable  property,  otherwise  than  for 
labor,  it  would  probably,  before  this,  unless  the  competition  of 


THE     ECONOMY     OF    VIRGINIA.  209 

free -labor  had  been  excluded  by  know-nothing  measures,  have 
forced  the  adoption  of  some  method  of  relieving  the  State  of  its 
heavy  burden;  but  this  great  first  law  of  Commerce  acts  very 
slowly. 

The  laborer  who,  in  New  York,  gave  a  certain  amount  of  labor 
for  his  wages  in  a  day,  soon  finds,  in  Virginia,  that  the  ordinary 
measure  of  labor  is  smaller  than  in  New  York  :  a  "  day's  work  " 
or  a  month's  does  not  mean  the  same  that  it  did  in  New  York. 
He  naturally  adapts  his  wares  to  the  market.  Just  as  in  New 
York  a  knavish  custom  having  been  sometime  ago  established,  of . 
selling  a  measure  of  three  quarters  of  a  bushel  of  certain  articles 
under  the  name  of  a  bushel,  no  man  now  finds  it  to  his  advan- 
tage to  offer  them  by  the  full  bushel,  at  a  correspondingly  higher 
price.  Though  every  one  cries  out  against  the  custom,  and  de- 
mands a  bushel  for  a  bushel,  few  are  willing  to  pay  proportionately 
for  it ;  few  are  willing  to  sell  it  without  being  paid  more  than  pro- 
portionately on  account  of  their  deviation  from  custom  ;  and  the 
custom  must  be  reformed  very  slowly.  So  the  laborer,  finding  that 
the  capitalists  of  Virginia  are  accustomed  to  pay  for  a  poor  arti- 
cle at  a  high  price,  prefers  to  furnish  them  the  poor  article  at 
their  usual  price,  rather  than  a  better  article,  unless  at  a  more 
than  correspondingly  better  price. 

But  there  are  other  laws,  also,  that  come  in  play  in  this  case, 
to  qualify  the  action  of  the  laws  of  demand  and  supply. 

"Man  is  a  social  animal."  The  largest  part  of  the  labor 
required  in  Virginia  is,  and  long  has  been,  performed  by  negroes. 
The  negroes  are  a  degraded  people ;  degraded  not  merely  by  po- 
sition, but  actually  immoral,  low-lived ;  without  healthy  ambition ; 
but  little  influenced  by  high  moral  considerations,  and,  in  regard 
to  labor,  not  all  affected  by  regard  for  duty.     This  is  universally 


210  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

recognized,  and  debasing  fear,  not  cheering  hope,  is  in  general 
allowed  to  be  their  only  stimulant  to  exertion.  A  capitalist  was 
having  a  building  erected  in  Petersburg,  and  his  slaves  were  em- 
ployed in  carrying  up  the  brick  and  mortar  for  the  masons  on 
their  heads ;  a  Northern  man,  standing  near,  remarked  to  him 
that  they  moved  so  indolently  it  seemed  as  if  they  were  trying  to 
see  how  long  they  could  be  in  mounting  the  ladder  without  actu- 
ally stopping.  The  builder  started  to  reprove  them,  but  after 
moving  a  step  turned  back  and  said:  "It  would  only  make  them 
move  more  slowly  still  when  I  am  not  looking  at  them,  if  I 
should  hurry  them  now.  And  what  motive  have  they  to  do  bet- 
ter ?-  It's  no  concern  of  theirs  how  long  the  masons  wait.  I 
am  sure,  if  I  was  in  their  place,  I  shouldn't  move  as  fast  as 
they  do." 

Now,  let  the  white  laborer  come  here  from  the  North  or  from 
Europe — his  nature  demands  a  social  life — shall  he  associate 
with  the  poor,  slavish,  degraded,  low-lived,  despised,  unambitious 
negro,  with  whom  labor  and  punishment  are  almost  synony- 
mous ?  or  shall  he  be  the  friend  and  companion  of  the  Avhite  man, 
in  whose  mind  labor  is  habitually  associated  with  no  ideas  of 
duty,  responsibility,  comfort,  luxury,  cultivation,  or  elevation 
and  expansion  either  of  mind  or  estate,  as  it  is  where  the  ordi- 
nary laborer  is  a  free  man — free  to  use  his  labor  as  a  means  of 
obtaining  all  these  and  all  else  that  is  to  be  respected,  honored 
or  envied  in  the  world  % 

Associating  with  either  or  both,  is  it  not  inevitable  that  he 
will  be  rapidly  demoralized — that  he  will  soon  learn  to  hate 
labor,  give  as  little  of  it  for  his  hire  as  he  can,  become  base,  cow- 
ardly, faithless — "  worse  than  a  nigger  "  % 

Such,  I  am  sure,  is  the  fact,  with  regard  to  the  majority  of 


THE     ECONOMY     OF     VIRGINIA.  211 

laborers  who  have  come  here,  and  I  cannot  doubt  that  such  is 
the  cause.  And,  when  we  reflect  how  little  the  great  body  of 
our  working-men  are  consciously  much  affected  by  moral  con- 
siderations, in  their  movements,  one  is  tempted  to  suspect  that 
the  Almighty  has  endowed  the  great  transatlantic  migration  with 
a  new  instinct,  by  which  it  is  unconsciously  repelled  from  the 
demoralizing  and  debilitating  influence  of  slavery,  as  migrating 
birds  have  sometimes  been  thought  to  be  from  pestilential  regions. 
I  know  not  else  how  to  account  for  the  remarkable  indisposi- 
tion to  be  sent  to  Virginia,  which  I  have  seen  manifested  by 
poor  Irishmen  and  Germans,  who  could  have  known,  I  think,  no 
more  of  the  evils  of  slavery  to  the  whites,  in  the  Slave  States, 
than  the  slaves  themselves  know  of  the  effect  of  conscription  in 
France,  and  who  certainly  could  have  been '  governed  by  no 
considerations  of  self-respect.  This  experience  I  have  had,  in 
consequence  of  having  been  requested  by  several  persons,  in- 
Virginia,  to  send  them  white  laborers.  I  can  understand  better 
what  induced  two  men  of  the  same  sort,  who  had  previously 
lived  a  short  time  on  farms  in  the  Free  State,  to  return  north, 
after  completing  a  short  engagement  to  work  upon  a  slave 
plantation,  though  they  had  obtained  high  wages,  and  were  well 
treated  by  their  employer,  and  could  give  no  better  reason  to 
me,  for  their  course,  than  that  they  "  didn't  like  to  work  with 
them  niggers." 

That  the  native  white  population  is  thoroughly  demoralized, 
in  respect  to  those  qualities  essential  to  a  good  laborer,  and  that 
this  demoralization  is  the  direct  result  of  slavery,  I  have  given 
some  evidence,  which  I  received  from  a  slave-holder,  in  one  of 
my  earlier  letters  (p.  82) ;  but  "I  will  add  the  recorded  testimony 
of  others. 


212  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

From  the  Patent  Office  Report,  for  1847. 

"  As  to  the  price  of  labor,  our  mechanics  charge  from  one  to  two 
dollars  a  day.  As  to  agricultural  labor,  we  have  none.  Our  poor  are 
poor  because  they  will  not  work,  therefore  are  seldom  employed. 

"  Chas.  Yancey, 
"  Buckingham  Co.,  Virginia." 

The  sentence,  "as  to  agricultural  labor,  we  have  none,"  must 
mean  no  free-labor :  the  number  of  slaves  in  this  county  being, 
according  to  the  census,  8,161,  or  nearly  3,000  more  than  the 
whole  white  population!  There  are,  also,  250  free  negroes  m 
the  county. 

From  a  Correspondent  of  the  American  Agriculturist,  Feb.  14, 1855. 

"  As  to  laborers,  we  work,  chiefly,  slaves,  not  because  they  are 
cheaper,  but  rather,  because  they  are  the  only  reliable  labor  we  can  get. 
The  whites  here  engage  to  work  for  less  price  than  the  blacks  can  be  got 
for ;  yet,  they  will  not  work  well,  and  rarely  work  out  the  time  specified. 
If  any  of  your  friends  come  here,  and  wish  to  work  whites,  I  would 
advise  them,  by  all  means,  to  bring  them  with  them ;  for,  our  white 
laborers  are  far  inferior  to  our  blacks,  and  our  black  labor  is  far 
inferior  to  what  we  read  and  hear  of  your  laborers. 

"  C.  G.  G., 
"  Albemarle  Co.,  Virginia." 

In  Albemarle,  there  are  over  thirteen  thousand  slaves,  to  less 
than  twelve  thousand  whites. 

In  the  northwestern  counties,  Cabell,  Mason,  Brooke,  and  Tyler, 
in  or  adjoining  which  there  are  no  large  towns,  but  a  free  laboring 
population,  with  slaves  in  ratio  to  the  freemen,  as  one  to  fifteen, 
only,  the  value  of  land  is  over  seven  dollars  and  three  quarters 
an  acre. 

In  Southampton,  Surrey,  James-Town,  and  New-Kent,  in 
which  the  slave  population  is  as  1  to  2*2,  the  value  of  land  is 
but  little  more  than  half  as  much — §4  50  an  acre  . 


THE     ECONOMY    OF    VIRGINIA.  213 

In  Surrey,  Prince  George,  Charles  City,  and  James,  adjoining 
counties  on  James  Kiver,  and  originally  having  some  of  the 
most  productive  soil  in  the  State,  and  now  supplied  with  the 
public  conveniences  which  have  accrued  in  two  hundred  years  of 
occupation,  by  a  civilized  and  Christian  community,  the  num- 
ber of  slaves  being,  at  present,  to  that  of  whites,  as  1  to  1*9, 
the  value  of  land  is  but  $6  an  acre. 

In  Fairfax,  another  of  the  first-settled  counties,  and  one  in 
which,  twenty  years  ago,  land  was  even  less  in  value  than  in  the 
James  River  counties,  it  is  now  worth  twice  as  much.  The  slave 
population,  once  greater  than  that  of  whites,  has  been  reduced, 
by  emigration  and  sale,  till  there  are  now  less  than  half  as  many 
slaves  as  whites.  In  the  place  of  slaves,  has  come  another  sort 
of  people.  The  change  which  has  taken  place,  and  the  cause 
of  it,  is  thus  simply  described  in  tbe  Agricultural  Eeport  of  the 
County  to  the  Commissioner  of  Patents.  (See  Patent  Office 
Report,  1852.) 

"  la  appearance,  the  county  is  so  changed,  in  many  parts,  that  a 
traveler,  who  passed  over  it  ten  years  ago,  would  not  now  recognize  it. 
Thousands  and  thousands  of  acres  had  been  cultivated  in  tobacco,  by 
the  former  proprietors,  would  not  pay  the  cost,  and  were  abandoned  as 
worthless,  and  became  covered  with  a  wilderness  of  pines.  These  lands 
have  been  purchased  by  northern  emigrants ;  the  large  tracts  divided 
and  subdivided,  and  cleared  of  pines  ;  and  neat  farm-houses  and  barns, 
with  smiling  fields  of  grain  and  grass,  in  the  season,  salute  the  delighted 
gaze  of  the  beholder.  Ten  years  ago,  it  was  a  mooted  question,  whether 
Fairfax  lands  could  be  made  productive ;  and,  if  so,  would  they  pay 
the  cost  ?  This  problem  has  been  satisfactorily  solved  by  many,  and, 
in  consequence  of  the  above  altered  state  of  things,  school-houses  and 
churches  have  doubled  in  number." 

There  is  much  more  evidence  in  my  hands,  but  I  think  I  may, 
as  the  lawyers  say,  rest  on  this.     I  see  not  how  any  one  can 


214  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

still  doubt  that  Slavery  is  the  present  cause  of  the  comparative 
adversity  or  poverty  of  Virginia,  or  that  Freedom  would  be 
found  an  immediate,  certain,  and,  to  all  but  the  few  slave- 
holders (they  are  not,  I  suppose,  one  to  a  hundred  of  the  people), 
entirely  satisfactory  remedy. 

But  I  cannot  pass  from  Virginia  without  considering  her 
condition  from  another  and  broader  point  of  view. 

It  is  very  customary  to  speak  of  our  Confederacy  of  States  as 
The  Great  Experiment.  The  great  experiment  of  what?  Of 
the  effect,  I  suppose  is  meant,  of  a  form  of  government  in  which 
all  men  are  declared  to  be  equal ;  in  which  there  are  no  privi- 
leged orders ;  no  ruling  class ;  in  which  the  laboring  class  is 
dignified  by  being  made,  equally  with  the  capitalist  and  the 
professional  scholar,  the  recipient  of  governmental  power. 

Yet,  the  United  States,  in  the  aggregate,  cannot  rightly  be 
considered  as  more  than  approximating  such  an  experiment.  It 
affords,  however,  thirty  distinct  experiments  in  governmental 
and  social  science,  which  might  be  studied  and  examined,  one 
comparatively  with  another,  most  usefully.  And  I  am  con- 
vinced that  the  average  progress  in  happiness  and  wealth,  which 
has  been  made  by  the  people  of  each  State,  is  in  almost  exact 
ratio  to  the  degree  in  which  the  democratic  principle  has  been 
radically  carried  out  in  their  constitution,  laws,  and  customs. 

In  studying  the  question  of  the  causes  of  the  poverty  of  Vir- 
ginia, I  have  been  obliged  to  -  examine  the  past  as  well  as  the 
present  character  of  her  labor,  and  I  have  been  astonished  to 
see  the  important  bearing  which  certain  facts  in  her  history 
have  upon  the  great  problem  of  statesmanship. 

Men  of  literary  taste  or  clerical  habits  are  always  apt  to 
overlook  the  working-classes,  and  to  <xmfine  the  records  they 


THE     ECONOMY     OF     VIRGINIA.  215 

make  of  their  own  times,  in  a  great  degree,  to  the  habits  and 
fortunes  of  their  own  associates,  or  to  those  of  people  of 
superior  rank  to  themselves,  of  whose  sayings  and  doings  their 
vanity,  as  well  as  their  curiosity,  leads  them  to  most  carefully 
inform  themselves.  The  dumb  masses  have  often  been  so  lost 
in  this  shadow  of  egotism,  that,  in  later  days,  it  has  been  im- 
possible to  discern  the  very  real  influence  their  character  and 
condition  has  had  on  the  fortune  and  fate  of  nations. 

Of  the  laborers  in  the  colony  of  Virginia,  although,  after  a 
self-sustaining  community  had  been  once  firmly  established, 
they  undoubtedly  formed  a  very  large  majority  of  all  the  people, 
very  little  notice  is  ever  taken  by  any  chronicler  or  historian, 
further  than  in  simple  memoranda  of  their  arrival  by  the  cargo 
or  hundred.  Information  with  regard  to  them  is  only  to  be 
obtained  by  a  labored  investigation  of  evidence  incidentally 
recorded. 

As  very  little  of  the  knowledge  thus  attainable  has  been  made 
readily  accessible  to  the  mass  of  the  reading  public,  or  to  those 
who  might  most  profit  by  it,  I  have  thought  it  best  to  offer 
here  a  somewhat  desultory  review  of  the  more  significant  facts 
relative  to  the  industrial  develonment  of  Virginia. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    EXPERIENCE    OF     VIRGINIA. 

SOME    DATA    AND    PHENOMENA    OF    THE    VIRGINIA    EXPERIMENTS 
IN    POLITICAL    ECONOMY. 

In  the  shipping-lists  and  other  records  of  the  first  settlement 
of  Virginia,  a  large  proportion  of  the  colonists  are  carefully 
designated  "gentlemen."  The  circumstance,  that  the  clergy- 
man and  surgeon-general  have  the  honor  to  be  mentioned  in  this 
company,  but  the  untitled  physician  and  surgeon  are  reckoned 
among  the  common  people,  will  indicate  pretty  clearly  the 
meaning  of  the  distinction. 

In  the  first  ship,  there  are- fifty  "gentlemen,"  with  one  hair- 
dresser, one  tailor,  one  drummer,  one  mason,  one  blacksmith, 
four  carpenters,  and  but  eight  professed  laborers. 

Speaking  of  the  immigrants  by  the  first  three  ships,  Captain 
John  Smith,  in  his  autobiography,  says  there  were  not  two 
dozen  that  had  ever  done  a  real  day's  work  in  their  lives,  before 
they  left  England.  Of  these,  eight  were  Dutchmen  and  Poles. 
The  rest  of  the  nominal  laborers  had  previously  been  gentlemen's 
lackeys  and  house-servants,  or  were  bankrupt  tradesmen  and 
desperate  loafers.  "  Ten  good  workmen  would  have  done  more 
substantial  work  than  ten  (of  the  best  of  them)  in  a  week." 

To  keep  them  all  from  perishing,  Smith  was  obliged  to  drive 
them  to  work  almost  at  the  sword's  point ;  and  when  he  had 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  217 

the  whole  responsibility  of  government  to  occupy  his  mind,  and 
its  various  duties  of  superintendence  to  take  up  his  time,  he 
himself  did  more  hard  and  irksome  manual  labor,  with  his  own 
hands,  than  any  other  man  in  the  colony. 

Smith,  of  course,  was  unpopular,  was  conspired  against,  and 
denounced  as  a  shrewd,  ambitious,  self-seeking  demagogue.  His 
enemies  never  dared  try  to  tar  and  feather  him ;  but  they  finally 
obtained  his  dismissal  from  the  governorship.  No  sooner,  how- 
ever, did  he  leave  the  miserable  rabble  of  snobs  and  flunkies  to 
take  care  of  themselves,  than  their  absolute  helplessness  was 
made  manifest.  Presently  they  were  reduced  to  such  extremi- 
ty as  is  described  in  the  following  passage  from  the  "  Observa- 
tions of  William  Symmons,  Doctor  of  Divinitie." 

"  — So  great  was  our  Famine,  that  a  Saluage  we  slew,  and  buried, 
the  poorer  Sort  tooke  him  up  againe  and  eat  him  and  so  did  diuers 
others  one  another,  boyled  and  stewed  with  Roots  and  Herbs  !  And 
one  amongst  the  rest  did  kill  his  Wife,  powdered  her,  and  had  eaten 
part  of  her  before  it  was  knowne,  for  which  he  was  executed  as  he 
well  deserued ;  now  whether  she  was  better  roasted,  boyled  or  car- 
bonado'd,  I  know  not,  but  of  such  a  Dish  as  powdered  Wife  I  neuer 
heard  of.  This  was  that  Time  which  still  to  this  Day  we  call  the 
staruing  Time ;  it  were  too  vile  to  say  ^nd  scarce  to  be  belieued,  what 
we  endured  :  but  the  Occasion  was  our  owne,  for  want  of  Prouidence, 
Industrie,  and  Gouernment,  and  not  the  barrennesse  and  defects  of 
the  Country,  as  is  generally  supposed." 

At  length,  in  a  fit  of  desperation,  the  surviving  adventurers 
packed  what  provisions  their  recklessness  had  not  yet  destroyed, 
in  boats,  abandoned  their  enterprise,  and  actually  embarked  with 
the  intention  of  coasting  to  the  northward  until  they  should  fall 
in  with  the  honest  laboring  fishermen  on  the  banks  of  Newfound- 
land, of  whom  they  could  ask  charity.     Before  they  got  out  of 

the  river,  however,  they  were  met  by  Sir  Thomas   Dale,  just 
10 


218  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

arriving  from  England,  with  a  Governor's  commission.      He 

obliged  them  to  return,  and,  after  a  short   experience   of  their 

laziness  and  imprudence,  proclaimed  martial  law,  ordered  them 

all,  gentle  and  simple,  to  work  in  gangs  under  overseers,  and 

threatened  to  shoot  the  first  man  who  refused  to  labor,  or  was 

disobedient.*     Yet  but   six   hours'   work   was    all   that  it  was 

deemed  prudent  or  necessary  to   require.     Smith  says  that  one 

day's  labor  of  each  man  was  amply  sufficient  to  provide  him  with 

food  for  a  week  ;  but  most  of  the  Colonists  would  actually  starve 

rather  than  do  this  much. 

William  Box  Avrites  home  an  account  of  the  dreadful  amount 

of  hard  work  that  it  is  necessary  to  have  done,  but  is  careful  to 

add — 

"  Neuerthelefs  it  must  not  be  concciued  that  this  Businefs  of 
planting  a  Colony  excludes  Gentlemen  whose  Breeding  never  knew 
what  a  Day's  Labor  was,  for  though  they  can  not  dig,  use  the 
Spade  or  practise  the  Ax,  there  is  abundant  Occasion  for  such  to 
imploy  the  force  of  Knowledge,  the  Excuse  of  Counsel,  the  Operation 
and  Power  of  their  best  Breeding  and  Qualities." 

Smith,  however,  wrote  to  the  Treasurer  in  London — 

"  When  you  send  again  I  entreat  you  send  rather  but  Thirty  Car- 
penters, Husbandmen,  Gardeners,  Fishermen,  Blacksmiths,  Masons, 
and  Diggers  Up  of  Trees'  Roots,  well  prouided,  than  a  Thousand  of 
such  as  we  have,  for  except  we  be  able  to  both  lodge  and  feed 
them,  the  most  will  consume  for  want  of  Necefsaries  before  they  can 
be  made  good  for  any  thing." 

*  One  reads,  not  without  admiration  of  the  candor  of  the  writer,  the  following 
observation  of  Mr.  Howison :  "  If  it  be  admitted  that  the  Southern  States  of  the 
American  Union  have  acted  wisely  in  enacting,  for  the  slaves  unhappily  exist- 
ing within  their  borders,  laws  different  from  those  applied  to  the  whites,  then  we 
presume  that  none  who  approve  this  distinction  can  object  to  the  principle  upon 
which  the  martial  law  of  Sir  Thomas  Dale  was  introduced." — Dale  found  it 
necessary  to  apply  to  the  Cavaliers  the  same  motive  to  labor  which  their  de- 
scendants now  consider  only  requisite  for  the  African  race.  Is  it  blood  or  edu- 
cation that  is  the  essential  evil  ? 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF    VIRGINIA.  219 

He  says  elsewhere — 

"  They  desired  but  to  pack  over  so  many  as  they  could,  saying 
Necefsity  would  make  them  get  Victuals  for  themselves,  as  for  good 
laborers  they  were  more  usefull  here  in  England ;  but.  they  found  it 
otherwayes,  the  Charge  was  all  one  to  send  a  Workman  as  a  Roarer, 
whose  Clamors  to  appease  we  had  much  adoe  to  get  Fish  and  Come  to 
maintaine  them  from  one  Supply  till  another  came,  with  more  Loy- 
terers  without  Victuals  still,  to  make  us  worse  and  worse :  for  the 
most  of  them  would  rather  starve  than  worke." 

The  Colony  still  languishing,  though  things  much  improved 
under  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  in  1618  the  company  petitioned  the  Crown 
to  make  them  a  present  of  "vagabonds  and  condemned  men,"  to 
be  sent  out  as  slaves  ;  and  the  King,  thankful,  probably,  to  get 
rid  of  the  burden  of  taking  care  of  these  men,  who  had  been  too 
lazy  heretofore  to  take  care  of  themselves  in  any  other  way  than 
by  pilfering  and  knavery,  was  graciously  pleased  to  grant  their 
request.  The  following  year  a  hundred  head  of  this  valuable 
stock  was  driven  out  of  Bridewell  and  other  London  knave-pens, 
on  board  ship,  and  exported  to  Virginia. 

The  next  year,  twenty  head  of  black  men,  direct  from  Africa, 
were  landed  from  a  Dutch  ship,  in  James  Eiver,  and  were  imme- 
diately bought  by  the  gentlemen  of  the  Colony. 

These  were  the  first  negro  slaves  in  the  country  at  present 
included  in  the  United  States.  The  same  year  the  first  cheer- 
ful labor  by  the  voluntary  immigrants  to  New  England,  by 
the  May-Flower,  was  applied  to  the  sterile  soil  of  Massachusetts 
Bay. 

Notwithstanding  the  gentlemen  of  Virginia  were  thus  relieved 
from  the  necessity  of  personal  labor,  the  Colony  continued  to 
demand  from  England  such  large  supplies  of  provisions,  and 
other  stores,  which  it  seemed  well  fitted  to  produce  within  itself, 
that  the   King  ordered  a  commission  to  ascertain  what  was  th* 


220  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

secret  ot  its  remarkable  adversity  and  continued  helplessness  and 
poverty. 

An  examination  of  the  chartered  Companies'  books  showed 
that  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  had  been 
then  already  sunk  in  the  endeavor  to  establish  and  sustain  the 
Colony. 

Smith  was  examined  at  length.*  Being  asked  what  charge  he 
thought,  at  the  time  he  left,  would  have  defrayed  the  necessary 
expenses  of  establishing  the  Colony  on  a  safe  footing,  he 
answered,  that  twenty  thousand  pounds,  if  it  could  have  been 
expended  in  wages  to  good  laborers  and  mechanics,  would  have 
been  amply  sufficient,  and  added  that  one  hundred  good  hired 
hands  would  have  been  worth  more  then  a  thousand  of  such  as 
had  been  sent  out,  and  that  though  Lord  Delaware,  Sir 
Thomas  Dale,  and  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  who  had  been  Governors 
in  Virginia  since  he  was  there,  had  been  previously  persuaded 
otherwise,  they  had  now  come  to  be  of  his  mind  about  it. 

In  reply  to  the  inquiry,  what  he  thought  were  the  defects  of 
the  government,  he  said  it  was  generally  complained  that  the 
supplies  intended  for  the  benefit  of  the  Colony  at  large,  were 
appropriated  by  a  few  individuals  to  their  private  advantage,  and 
that  even  the  laborers  sent  out  to  ivork  for  the  Company  were  sold  to 
the  highest  bidders  among  the  private  adventurers.  God  forbid, 
he  continued,  that  those  Avho  transport  these  servants  thither, 
and  provide  them  with  necessaries,  should  not  be  repaid,  or  that 


*  Smith  had  once  been  a  slave  himself,  and  had  been  driven  to  agricultural 
labor  by  his  Tartar  master,  exactly  as  the  African  slaves  now  are  in  America. 
He  knew  very  well,  therefore,  the  different  value  of  a  slave,  obliged  to  work 
for  another's  benefit,  and  a  free  man,  working  for  himself.  It  is  a  curious 
thing,  also,  that  finally  he  killed  his  owner,  and  fled  to  the  North.  See  his  Life, 
by  himself. 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF    VIRGINIA.  221 

masters  should  not  there  have  the  same  privileges  over  their 
servants  that  they  had  in  England ;  but  it  was  an  odious  thing, 
and  a  source  of  corresponding  evil,  that  when  the  cost  of  their 
shipment  was  not  more  than  eight,  or  at  the  most,  ten  pounds 
each,  they  should  be  sold,  as  they  were,  to  the  planters,  from 
the  ships,  at  forty,  fifty,  and  threescore  pounds,  and  this  without 
any  stipulation  as  to  how  they  should  he  treated  or  maintained.  He 
would  have  these  merchants  made  such  merchandise  of  them- 
selves, rather  than  suffer  such  a  bad  trade  to  continue  longer,  for 
it  was  enough  to  bring  a  well-settled  commonwealth  to  misery, 
much  more  such  a  one  as  Virginia. 

It  was  not  discontinued  until  the  revolution  of  1776. 

According  to  a  letter  of  John  Eolfe's,  in  1619,  there  had  been 
many  complaints  that  the  Governors,  Captains  and  officers 
bought  and  sold  men  and  boys,  or  set  them  over,  from  one  to 
another,  for  a  yearly  rent ;  also  that  tenants  and  servants  were 
frequently  misused,  and  covenants  were  not  kept  with  them,  and 
the  Council  in  England,  in  order  to  amend  these  abuses,  ordered 
-that  a  hundred  men  should  be  provided  at  the  Company's 
charge,  to  serve  and  attend  the  Governor ;  fifty,  the  Deputy 
Governor;  fifty,  the  Treasurer,  and  smaller  numbers  for  the 
other  officers,  and  likewise  to  each  officer  a  competency  sufficient 
to  enable  him  to  live  well  in  his  office,  without  resorting  to 
those  scandalous  means.  These  servants  they  were  required  to 
deliver  up  in  good  order  to  their  successors ;  but  complaint  is 
afterwards  made  that  they  generally  failed  to  do  so,  and  that 
many  of  them  were  sold  to  the  planters,  and  the  proceeds 
pocketed  by  the  chivalrous  cavaliers. 

Being  next  asked  how  he  would  remedy  the  evils  under  which 
the  Colony  suffered,  Smith  recommended,  first,  that  the  officers 


222  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

should  be  held  to  a  more  strict  accountability  for  the  funds  placed 
in  their  hands ;  second,  that  less  should  be  expended  from  the 
common  stock  in  maintainiag  the  officers'  and  deputies'  servants, 
and  thirdly,  that  sufficient  workmen,  and  means  to  maintain 
them,  should  be  provided,  and  that  the  practice  of  sending  out 
delinquents  who  could  not  be  ruled  by  the  laws  of  England 
should  be  stopped  forthwith.  To  improve  a  commonwealth 
with  debauched  people,  he  maintained,  was  out  of  the  question ; 
no  wise  man  would  choose  to  seek  his  fortune  in  such  company. 
There  was  more  ado,  he  repeated,  in  conclusion,  about  the 
administration  of  their  paltry  government,  than  was  necessary 
for  that  of  the  kingdoms  of  Ireland  and  Scotland ;  the  number  of 
officers  in  Virginia,  with  their  attendants,  ivas  greater  than  that  of 
all  the  workers. 

The  report  of  the  investigating  commission  was  never  made 
public,  but  it  resulted  in  an  abrogation  of  the  charter  of  the 
Company,  and  a  bar  upon  their  property,  if  not  a  formal  confis- 
cation of  it,  which  has  never  been  defended  on  any  other 
grounds  than  such  as  are  held  to  justify  the  forcible  suppression 
of  a  public  nuisance.  The  chief  cause  of  the  failure  of  the 
Colony  had  evidently  been  the  indolence  and  imbecility  of  the 
people  ;  nevertheless,  the  practice  of  sending  out  malefactors  was 
not  discontinued,  nor  were  any  pains  taken  to  encourage  the 
emigration  of  industrious  poor  men,  eager  to  improve  their 
circumstances.* 

The  king,  however,  had  the  sense  to  make  the  gentlemen  of  the 
Colony  dependent  neither  on  wages,  nor  partnership  in  profits, 

*  In  1614,  shortly  after  Lord  Delaware's  return  from  Virginia,  being  in  the 
House  of  Commons  on  the  reception  of  a  petition  from  Virginia,  he  made  the 
capital  observation :  "  All  Virginia  requires  is  but  a  few  honest  laborers,  bur- 
dened with  children." 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF    VIRGINIA.  223 

but  wholly  on  their  own  individual  good  management.  Patents 
of  land,  to  any  extent,  were  given  to  all  applicants,  except 
nonconformists,  on  the  payment  of  a  quit-rent  to  the  crown, 
of  two  "shillings  an  acre.  This  led  to  a  large  immigration  of 
speculators,  who  immediately  commenced  planting  tobacco,  with 
all  the  laborers,  of  any  sort,  that  they  could  command. 

Four  years  later,  Smith  says,  the  Colony  has  increased 
wonderfully  beyond  expectation,  and  that  tobacco  is  raised 
in  such  excessive  quantities,  that  the  market  is  already  quite 
overstocked  with  it.  He  looks  for  a  good  effect  to  follow — 
that  the  small  profit  of  raising  tobacco  "will  cause  the  peo- 
ple to  come  together  to  work  upon  soap-ashes,  iron,  rape-oil, 
madder,  pitch  and  tar,  flax  and  hemp."  We  shall  see  that  even 
he  had  not  sufficiently  appreciated  the  irreparable  mischief  which 
the  degradation  of  labor  must  entail  upon  a  community.         - 

The  more  the  people  of  the  Colony  increase  in  numbers,  the 
more  distinctly  do  they  continue  to  be  classed  under  the  two 
grand  divisions — gentlemen  and  laborers.  Under  the  head  of 
gentlemen  are  to  be  included  the  colonial  officers,  the  clergy, 
and  the  large  land-proprietors,  sometimes  still  styled  adventurers 
(a  term  equivalent  to  speculators,)  but  generally  called  planters. 
Lawyers  and  physicians  are  seldom  mentioned.  The  laborers 
are  sub-divided,  under  the  tbree  heads  of  heathen  slaves,  con- 
vict slaves  or  servants,  and  bond-servants :  no  doubt  there  were 
some  freemen  laboring  for  wages  also,  and  a  few  mechanics  and 
others,  living  by  job-work,  but  there  is  never  any  mention  of 
such. 

CONVICT    CHRISTIAN    SLAVES. 

Christian  slaves,  or  servants,  were  criminals  and  state-prisoners, 
who  were  often  given  as  property,  by  the  English  kings,  to  those 


224  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

they  wished  to  reward  among  their  courtiers  and  favorite  officers, 
and  by  them  sold  to  the  colonists.  The  majority  of  them  were 
not  resolute  ruffians,  but  idle  and  dissolute  fellows,  vagrants,  and 
pickpockets.  I  have  found  no  clear  indication  of  their  number, 
but,  even  before  the  confiscation  of  the  Company's  charter,  it 
had  been  so  great,  and  had  occasioned  Virginia  so  bad  a 
reputation,  that  Smith  wrote :  "  Some  did  choose  to  be  hanged 
ere  they  would  go  thither,  and  were." 

Shortly  before  the  Eevolution,  the  usual  annual  importation 
of  felons  into  the  adjoining  smaller  province  of  Maryland  was 
three  hundred  and  fifty  in  number ;  that  to  Virginia  was  probably 
larger.* 

"  The  Fortunes  and  Misfortunes  of  the  celebrated  Moll  Flan- 
ders, who  was  born  in  Newgate,"  a  novel,  by  De  Foe,  written  in 
1683,  first  published  in  London,  1722,  gives  much  evidence  of 
the  notorious  character  of  the  Virginia  emigration,  some  of 
which  I  subjoin,  in  extracts. 

"  She  often  told  me  how  the  greateft  part  of  the  Inhabitants  of  that 
Colony  came  thither  in  very  indifferent  Circumftances  from  England; 
that,  generally  fpeaking,  they  were  of  two  Sorts ;  either,  firft,  fuch  as 
were  brought  over  by  Mailers  of  Ships,  to  be  fold  as  Servants ;  or, 
fecond,  fuch  as  are  tranfported,  after  having  been  found  guilty  of 
Crimes  punifhable  with  Death." 

— "  Depend  upon  it,"  fays  fhe,  "  there  are  more  Thieves  and 
Rogues  made  by  that  one  Prifon  of  Newgate,  than  by  all  the  Clubs 
and  Societies  of  Villains  in  the  Nation.  '  'Tis  that  curfed  Place,' 
fays  my  Mother,  '  that  half  peoples  this  Colony,'  (Virginia). 

"  '  Hence,  Child,'  fays  fhe,  '  many  a  Newgate-Bird  becomes  a 
great  Man,  and  we  have,'  continued  fhe,  '  feveral  Juftices  of  the 
Peace,  Officers  of  the  trained  Bands,  and  Magiftrates  of  the  Towns 
they  live  in,  that  have  been  burned  in  the  Hand.' " 

— "  That  he  had  fome  intimation,  that  if  he  would  fubmit  to  tranf- 
port  himfelf,  he  might  be  admitted  to  it  without  a  Trial,  but  that  he 
could  not  think  of  it  with  any  Temper,  and  thought  he  could  much 
eafier  fubmit  to  be  hanged." 

*  Grahairie. 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  225 

Transportation  to  Virginia  was  the  choice,  as  appears  by  the 
context,  and  thus  Smith's  amusing  assertion  is  confirmed. 

"  Some  of  them  [convict  pafsengers  to  Virginia^  had  neither  Shirt 
nor  Shift,  Linen  or  Woolen,  but  what  was  on  their  Backs." 

— "  The  Mortification  of  being  brought  on  board,  like  a  Prifoner, 
piqued  him  very  much,  fince  it  was  firft  told  him  that  he  fhould  tranf- 
port  himfelf,  fo  that  he  might  go  as  a  Gentleman  at  Liberty.  It  is 
true  he  was  not  ordered  to  be  fold  when  he  came  there." 

— "Ordered  to  be  transported  (to  Virginia)  in  refpite  from  the 
Gallows, 

A  Virginia  Gentleman. — The  Cafe  was  plain,  he  was  born  a 
Gentleman,  and  was  not  only  unacquainted,  but  indolent,  and  when 
we  did  fettle,  would  rather  go  into  the  Woods  with  his  Gun — which 
they  call,  there,  Hunting — than  attend  the  natural  Bufinefs  of  the 
Plantation." 

The  greater  energy  and  industry  of  his  wife,  who  had  been 

a  prostitute  and  a  convict,  only  made  him  content  to  remain  in 

Virginia. 

— "  An  Englifh  Woman- fervant  and  a  Negro  Man-fervant,  things 
abfolutely  necefsary  for  all  People  that  pretended  to  fettle  in  that 
Country." 

It  was  not  criminals  alone  that  were  sent  into  this  bondage, 
but  captives  of  war,  of  all  nations,  and  State  prisoners,  victims 
of  the  Star  Chamber  and  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts ;  persons 
suspected  of  traitorous  designs  upon  the  monarchy,  and  infidels 
to  the  Court  theology;  all  were  herded  together  with  petty 
pilferers,  convicted  murderers,  and  heathen  blackamoors,  and 
driven  by  overseers  to  work  in  the  tobacco  fields  of  their  cavalier 
purchasers. 

Charles  II.  ordered  a  shipment  of  Quakers  to  Virginia,  where 

they  were  sold  as  slaves,  for  dissenting  from  his  true  church. 

Their    non-resistance    principles   must    have    added    much   to 

their   value.      The    common   rascals,   though   always    money's 

worth,   were    usually   considered    extra-hazardous.     In    1720. 
10* 


226  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

Beverly  says :  "  as  for  malefactors  condemned  to  transportation, 
though  the  greedy  planter  will  always  buy  them,  yet,  it  is  to  be 
feared  they  will  be  very  injurious  to  tbe  country,  which  has 
always  suffered  many  murthers  arid  robberies." 

Medical  science  had  not  then  been  pushed  to  that  profundity 
of  analysis,  which  now  distinguishes  it,  at  the  South ;  but,  in 
the  unprofessional  records  of  the  times,  the  distinguishing  symp- 
toms may  be  clearly  recognized,  of  both  drapetomania  and 
dysesthesia,  and  it  is  clear,  I  think,  that  these  maladies  prevailed 
among  this  class  of  laborers,  to  an  exceedingly  interesting  extent. 
Drapetomania  would,  indeed,  seem,  though  Professor  Cartwright 
does  not  mention  it,  to  have  then  been  more  prevalent  among 
the  whites  than  the  negroes.  Dr.  Little,  in  his  History  of 
Kichmond,  has  not  failed  to  notice  this  singular  pathological 
fact.  He  says  that,  in  the  earliest  colonial  newspapers,  "  Bun- 
away  servants  are  advertised ;  generally  white  men,  convicts  sold 
for  their  crimes ;  the  nation,  as  well  as  the  description  of  the 
person  is  given,  and  sometimes  the  manner  of  carrying  himself, 
when  in  liquor.  We  find  Englishmen,  Irish,  Welsh,  and  Scotch, 
all  in  print,  as  runaway  convict  slaves.'" 

Owing,  probably,  to  the  neglect  of  sufficient  quarantine  pre- 
cautions, Dysmthesia  Ethiopica  must  have  been  introduced  by  the 
African  traders,  at  an  early  period ;  and  its  contagion  was  not 
confined  to  the  Ethiopian  stock,  but,  perhaps,  from  their  then 
more  close  association  in  the  labors  of  the  plantation,  it  too 
frequently,  also,  attacked  the  white  slaves.  A  case  is  mentioned 
by  Beverly,  where  violent  remedies  were  obliged  to  be  used,  to 
check  it. 

"  The  rigorous  circumfcription  of  their  Trade,  the  Perfecution 
of  the  Sectaries,  and  the  little  Demand  for  Tobacco,  had  like  to 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  227 

have  had  very  fatal  Confequences.  For  the  poor  People  (chiefly 
Servants  who  had  ferved  out  their  Bond,  probably,)  becoming 
thereby  very  uneaiie,  their  Murmerings  were  watch' d  and  fed, 
by  feveral  mutinous  and  rebellious  Oliverian  Soldiers,  fent  thither 
as  Servants.  Thefe  depending  upon  the  difcontented  People  of  all 
Sorts,  formed  a  villainous  Plot  to  deitroy  their  Mailers,  and  after- 
wards to  fet  up  for  themfelves.  This  Plot  was  brought  fo  near 
to  Perfection,  that  it  was  the  very  Night  before  the  defigncd 
Execution,  e'er  it  was  difcover'd ;  and  then  it  came  out  by  the 
relenting  of  one  of  their  Accomplices,  whofe  name  was  Birken- 
head. This  Man  was  Servant  to  Mr.  Smith  of  Purton,  in  Glou- 
cester County,  near  which  Place,  viz.,  at  Poplar  Spring,  the 
Mifcreants  were  to  meet  the  Night  following,  and  put  in  Execution 
their  horrid  Confpiracy."  *  *  "Four  of  thefe  Rogues  were  hanged; 
but  Birkenhead  was  gratified  with  his  Freedom,  and  a  Reward  of 
Two  Hundred  Pounds  Sterling.  For  the  Discovery  and  happy 
DiiTapointment  of  this  Plot,  an  anniverfary  Thankfgiving  v/as  ap- 
pointed on  the  13  th  of  September,  the  Day  it  was  to  have  been  put 
in  Execution.  And  it  is  great  Pity  fome  other  Days  are  not  com- 
memorated as  well  as  that." 

CHRISTIAN   BOND-SERVANTS    OR    REDEIvIPTIONERS. 

The  term  servant  was,  I  believe,  always  applied,  in  the  provin- 
cial days  of  Virginia,  to  white  men  and  women,  who  were  bound 
to  service  for  a  limited  time,  and  the  term  slaves,  to  those  held 
for  life.  Well-bred  people  now  designate  their  slaves,  both  field 
hands  and  house  servants,  by  that  title.  I  presume  the  fashion 
of  doing  so  arose  after  the  Kevolution,  and  was  due  to  the  same 
feeling  which  prevented  the  word  slave  from  being  permitted  in 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

Poor  people  of  all  sorts,  in  England,  Avere  induced,  by  well- 
worked  puffs  of  the  delightful  climate,  and  abundant,  spontaneous 
productions  of  Virginia,  to  indenture  themselves  as  servants  for 
terms  of  years,  for  the  sake  of  being  transported  thither.  There 
was  a  profession  of  men,  called  Spirits,  who  made  it  their  business 
to  cajole  weak  young  men  and  women,  in  this  way,  and  then  send 


228  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

them  to  the  colony,  and  sell  them  to  the  planters,  as  servants  or 
lahorers.  They  were  in  such  demand,  that  they  were  often 
disposed  of  on  hoard  ship,  to  the  highest  bidders,  at  profits  of 
thirty  or  forty  pounds  to  the  spirited  speculators. 

The  following  advertisement  is  taken  from  the  Virginia  Ga- 
zette, March  3d,  1768 : 

JUST  arrived,  the  Neptune,  Captain  Arbuckle,  with  one  hundred 
and  ten  healthy  Servants,  Men,  Women  and  Boys,  among  Whom 
are  many  valuable  tradesmen,  viz.  :  Tailors,  Weavers,  Barbers, 
Blackfmiths,  Carpenters  and  Joiners,  Shoemakers,  a  Stay  Maker, 
Cooper,  Cabinet  Maker,  Bakers,  Silverfmiths,  a  Gold  and  Silver 
Refiner,  and  many  others. 

The  Sale  v/ill  commence  at  Leedftown,  on  the  Rappahannoc,  on 
Wednefday,  the  9th  of  this  inftant  (March).  A  reafonable  Credit  will 
be  allowed  on  giving  approved  Security  to 

THOMAS  HODGE.* 

These  servants  stood  in  the  relation  of  debtors  to  their 
masters,  bound  to  discharge  the  cost  of  their  immigration 
"by  the  entire  employment  of  their  powers  to  the  benefit 
of  their  creditors."  f  It  was  illegal  for  any  man  to  deal 
with  them,  except  their  masters.  Having  no  property  of 
their  own,  by  the  penal  laws,  they  were  to  be  whipped 
at  the  rate  of  one  stroke  for  each  sixty  cents  of  the  fines  im- 
posed in  like  cases  on  freemen.  Masters  were  forbidden  to 
whip  their  servants  naked,  nor  were  they  given  permission 
to  kill  them,  under  any  circumstances,  but  they  were  allowed 
by  law  to  dismember  irreclaimable  runaways,  if  they  thought 
best.J  Any  resistance  or  offer  of  violence,  on  the  part  of  a 
servant  to  his  master,  subjected  him  to  one  year's  additional 
servitude,  and  maid-servants,  having  illegitimate  children,  also 

*  Howison.  t  Bancroft.  X  Hildreth. 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  229 

forfeited  to  their  masters  one  year's  additional  service ;  if,  how- 
ever, their  master  was  the  father,  it  was  to  be  paid  to  the 
church-wardens.  By  a  subsequent  law,  any  unmarried  white 
woman  having  a  child,  was  to  be  fined  fifteen  pounds,  or  to 
be  sold  for  five  years  ;  if  she  was  already  a  servant,  the  time 
to  commence  at  the  end  of  the  service  for  which  she  was  bound  : 
the  child  was  to  be  bound  out  till  thirty  years  of  age. 

The  white  servants,  at  an  early  period,  were  reported  to  be 
treated  with  great  cruelty,  and  to  be  employed  at  unusual 
labors.  Beverly  denies  that  it  was  so  in  his  time  (1720). 
Probably,  from  the  danger,  which  cruel  treatment  occasioned, 
of  their  revolt,  as  well  as .  from  the  check  which  the  reports  of 
it  produced  upon  the  importation  of  servants,  laws  were  passed 
to  prevent  cruelty,  and  to  insure  that  wholesome  diet  and 
clothing  should  be  provided  for  them. 

"If  a  Mafter  fhould  be  fo  cruel  as  to  ufe  his  Servant  ill,  who  is  fain 
fick,  or  lame  in  his  Service  and  thereby  rendered  unfit  for  Labour,  he 
muft  be  removed  by  the  Church  Wardens  out  of  the  Way  of  fuch  Cru- 
elty." "All  Servants  whatever,  have  their  Complaints  heard,  without 
Fee  or  Reward ;  but  if  the  Mafter  be  found  faulty,  the  Charge  of  the 
Complaint  is  caft  upon  him,  otherwife  the  bufinefs  is  done  ex  Officio." 
Mafters  "  are  always  to  appear  on  the  firft  Complaint  of  their 
Servants,  otherwife  to  forfeit  the  Service  of  them  until  they  do 
appear."  "All  Servants'  Complaints  are  to  be  received  at  any  Time 
in  Court  without  Procefs,  and  fhall  not  be  delayed  for  want  of  Form; 
but  the  Merits  of  the  fame  fhall  be  immediately  inquired  into  by  the 
Juftices."* 

None  of  these  laws  applied  to  negro  slaves  (or  to  any 
born  out  of  Christendom) ;  nor  has  there  been  any  equally 
humane  legislation  in  their  behalf  to  this  day.  Whenever 
there  shall   be   a  sincere   and  earnest  desire    on    the    part    of 

*  Beverly. 


230  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

the  controlling  power  of  any  slave  State  to  legislate  on 
Slavery  for  the  negro's  sake,  the  Virginia  enactments  of  two 
centuries  ago,  with  regard  to  the  protection  of  white  bond- 
servants, will  serve  as  a  model. 

"An  inexperienced  examiner,"  says  Mr.  Howison,  "of  the 
present  time,  in  reading  the  criminal  code  of  Virginia  as  to 
slaves,  would  declare  that  it  was  stained  with  blood ;  and  in 
truth  it  is  appalling  to  note  the  number  and  the  character 
of  the  offenses  for  which  death  is  denounced  against  them. 
But  it  affords  the  purest  consolation  to  reflect  that  these 
laws  seldom  operate  in  practice.  The  executive  is  clothed 
with  the  merciful  power  of  selling  slaves  condemned  to  die, 
and  transporting  them  beyond  the  limits  of  the  State.  The 
owner  then  receives  value;  but  if  the  slave  so  transported 
returns,  he  is  liable  to  execution,  without  reprieve,  and  the 
owner  loses  his  value."  Either  these  laws  are  barbarous  or 
the  transportation  is  unjust  and  unmerciful  to  those  living 
out  of  the  State.  How  would  Virginia  act,  if  Pennsylvania 
should  pass  a  law,  permitting  the  governor  to  set  all  crimi- 
nals, deserving  death,  over  the  border,  with  a  threat  to  kill 
them  if  they  were  ever  seen  within  her  limits  again? 

When  the  time  for  which  these  servants  were  covenanted  to 
labor  had  expired,  they,  of  course,  were  entitled  to  be  at 
liberty.  It  was  not  customary  to  pay  them  anything  as 
wages  ;  but  the  law  required  that  they  should  always  be  pro- 
vided with  two  suits  of  clothes,  ten  bushels  of  corn,  and  a 
gun  of  twenty  shillings  value,  when  at  length  they  became 
self-dependent.  They  could  be  made  freemen  of  the  province 
on  application  to  the  Governor,  and  after  certain  formalities. 
Chiefly  recruited,   originally,  among  the  most  miserable  rabble 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  231 

of  London,  educated  to  agricultural  labor  as  the  yoke-mates 
of  slaves  and  criminals,  and  then  suddenly  turned  adrift  with 
a  Brumagem  fire-lock  and  ten  bushels  of  maize,  to  shift  for 
themselves,  their  social  elevation  was  not  likely  to  be  very 
rapid.  Eegard  to  family  descent  is  a  notoriously  weak  point 
among  the  wealthy  people  of  Virginia,  even  at  this  clay, 
"Poverty  and  the  want  of  education  on  the  part  of  the  mass 
of  the  freedmen,"  says  Hildreth,  "kept  them,  too  often,  in  a 
subservient  position,  and  created  in  the  Middle  as  well  as  the 
Southern  Colonies  an  inferior  order  of  poor  whites,  a  dis- 
tinction of  classes  and  an  inequality  almost  unknown  in  repub- 
lican New  England." 

HEATHEN   OK   INEIDEL    SLAVES. 

It  was  early  enacted  that  all  persons  brought  into  the  Colony, ' 
who  had  not  been  Christians  in  their  own  country,  and  even 
though  they  afterwards  were  converted,  should  be  made  and 
held  slaves  for  life.  One  of  the  avowed  objects  of  the  Virginia 
speculation  being  to  convert  the  native  savages,  a  provision  of 
the  royal  charter  inculcated  kindness  to  the  Indians,  and  forbade 
their  being  made  slaves.  This  was  afterwards  disregarded,  and 
multitudes  of  them  were  brought  into  subjection,  and  held  as 
slaves  for  life,  on  the  ground  that  they  were  prisoners  of  war, 
and  rightful  subjects  of  oppression,  in  the  name  of  Christ. 

In  1662,  forty-two  years  after  the  first  importation  of  negroes, 
there  being  already  many  mulatto  children,  the  paternity  of 
which  it  would  be  disagreeable  to  inquire  about,  owing  to  the 
laws  against  libertinism,  it  was  enacted,  in  direct  contradiction 
to  the  supreme  English  law,  that  the  children  of  slaves  should 
follow  the  condition  of  the  mother,  and  not  ever  of  the  father. 


232  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

This  law,  which  has  been  maintained  to  the  present  time,  of 
course  offers  a  direct  encouragement  to  the  most  mischievous 
licentiousness.  In  the  French,  Dutch,  Danish,  German,  Spanishj 
and  Portuguese  colonies,  the  white  fathers  of  colored  children 
have  always  been  accustomed  to  educate  and  emancipate  them, 
and  endow  them  with  property.  In  Virginia,  and  the  English 
colonies  generally,  the  white  fathers  of  mulatto  children  have 
always  been  accustomed  to  use  them  in  a  way  that  most  com- 
pletely destroys  the  oft  complacently-asserted  claim,  that  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  is  possessed  of  deeper  natural  affection  than 
the  more  demonstrative  sort  of  mankind. 

In  1669,  that  the  cupidity  of  planters  might  not  prevent  them 
from  permitting  the  christening  of  their  slaves'  children,  from 
a  doubt  of  their  right  to  hold  Christians  in  slavery,  it  was 
formally  enacted  that  the  Christian  offspring  of  all  slaves  might 
be  used  as  property,  by  the  owners  of  the  mothers  of  it. 

Both  these  laws  being,  as  is  evident  from  repeated  decisions 
of  English  Courts,  "unconstitutional"  or  enacted  in  defiance  of 
the  common  and  fundamental  law,  at  the  time  they  were  passed, 
no  person  can  be  legally  defined  a  slave,  in  Virginia,  except  by 
his  heathenism  or  infidelity,  to  this  day.  The  law  made  no 
account  of  color,  but  only  of  creed,  in  distinguishing  a  man 
entitled  to  freedom  from  a  man  subject  to  be  enslaved.  The 
slavery  of  negroes,  in  Virginia,  at  this  time,  rests  only  on 
custom.* 

Laws  were  afterwards  passed,  at  various  times,  to  discourage 
the  emancipation  of  slaves  by  grateful  or  conscientious  owners, 
and  free  negro-women  were  taxed  in  distinction  from  white. 

*  In  England,  Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut,  Slavery  ceased  by  decisions 
based  on  the  Common  Law,  not  by  special  legislative  acts  of  abolition. 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  233 

Slaves  were,  by  special  exception,  denied  trial  by  jury.  When 
charged  with  a  capital  crime,  a  special  commission  was  appointed 
to  judge  them,  and,  if  they  were  condemned  to  death,  their 
owners  were  remunerated  for  their  loss  from  the  public  treasury. 

In  1692,  an  act  was  passed  for  suppressing  "  outlying  slaves." 
After  setting  forth  that  negroes,  mulattoes,  and  other  slaves,  oft- 
times  absent  themselves  from  their  masters,  and  lurk  in  obscure 
places,  killing  hogs,  and  committing  other  injuries  to  the  planta- 
tions, it  authorizes  forces  to  be  raised  by  the  sheriffs,  for  hunting 
them,  which,  if  they  run  away  or  resist  being  taken,  may  kill 
them  with  guns,  or  in  "  any  other  way  whatsoever."  For  each 
slave  so  destroyed,  the  owner  was  entitled  to  obtain  from  the 
public  treasury  four  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco.  In  1701,  a 
proclamation  was  recorded,  offering  a  reward  of  two  thousand 
pounds  of  tobacco  to  whoever  shall  kill  a  certain  runaway- 
slave  Billy. 

Planters,  by  special  enactment,  were  not  to  be  judged  guilty 
of  felony  if  they  killed  their  own  slaves.* 

In  1687,  when  there  was  an  insurrection  of  the  slaves,  the 
whole  number  of  them  in  the  colony  fell  little  short  of  one  third 
the  whole  number  of  inhabitants.!  In  1724,  the  importation 
of   Africans   amounted  to    one    thousand  annually.^      At   the 

*  Cotemporaneously  with  these  laws,  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  all  persons 
who  doubt  the  authority  of  the  Bible,  or  who  question  the  dogma  of  the  Trinity, 
of  whatever  race  or  nation,  are  ineligible  to  office,  and  are  subject  to  imprison- 
ment for  three  years  if  they  express  their  opinions  ;  that  Quakers  are  denied 
admission  to  the  country,  and,  if  they  persist  in  coming,  are  ordered  to  be 
treated  as  felons;  that  strict  measures  are  taken  to  prevent  "  the  infection  of 
Puritanism"  from  reaching  the  people,  and  to  secure  the  formal  observance  of 
public  worship ;  that  fines,  of  from  one  to  fifty  pounds  of  tobacco,  are  laid  on 
non-attendance  at  church  on  Sunday,  Sunday  traveling,  profane  swearing, 
"profanely  getting  drunk,"  etc. 

t  Burke.  %  Hildreth. 


234  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

Eevolution,  Jefferson  estimated  the  number  of  slaves  in  the 
State  to  be  270,000 ;  that  of  whites,  of  all  classes,  296,000. 
The  number  of  the  slaves  in  the  Eastern  counties  was  so  great 
as  to  occasion  continual  uneasiness. 

QUALITY    AND    EDUCATION    OF    THE    LABORERS. 

No  one  can  fail  to  notice  that,  among  all  three  of  these 
varieties  of  laborers  provided  to  the  land-proprietors  of  Virginia, 
there  could  have  been  but  very  few  accustomed  to  steady  labor, 
before  their  arrival  there.  None  of  them,  while  they  remained 
servants,  had  any  direct  interest  in  the  result  of  their  labors ; 
there  was  nothing,  in  the  nature  of  the  relation  between  them  and 
their  masters,  to  make  them  interested  in  their  master's  wealth  or 
welfare :  between  the  large  majority  of  them  and  their  masters, 
there  must  have  been  the  reverse  of  confidence  and  gratitude. 
They  were  worked,  white  and  black  slaves,  criminal  and  bonded 
servants,  all  ganged  together,  under  overseers  whose  own  habits 
of  labor  had  been  formed  in  Virginia :  whether  they  accomplished 
much  or  little,  whether  they  labored  skillfully  or  awkwardly, 
carefully  or  carelessly,  it  was  all  the  same,  so  they  but  managed 
to  escape  chastisement. 

THE    PROPRIETORS. 

The  proprietary  planters,  who  always  were  the  commanding 
body  in  the  province,  received  their  character  from  certain 
emigrating  offshoots  of  aristocratic  English  families.  They 
endeavored  to  sustain,  so  far  as  it  was  possible  in  the  wilderness, 
the  manners,  morals,  politics,  forms  of  religion,  and  other  habits 
and  fashions  of  the  gentry  and  court  of  Charles  the  First.  On 
this  account,  and  because  of  their  brave  adherence  to  the  king's 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  235 

party  against  the  people's  parliament,  they  are  called  Cavaliers. 
They  did  not  leave  their  English  homes  from  a  desire  of  greater 
freedom,  politically  or  morally,  for  they  all  belonged  to  the  domi- 
nant party  and  the  oppressing  church.  Pure  agriculture  prom- 
ised but  little  profit  in  the  province,  and  the  market  was  always 
glutted  with  its  sole  exporting  staple :  trade  they  held  in 
contempt.  Their  chief  motive  in  coming  to  America  seems 
to  have  been  the  hope  to  obtain  the  position,  assume  the 
airs,  and  enjoy  the'  consequence  in  the  New  World  which  it 
was  impossible  for  any  but  born  noblemen  and  great  land 
lords  to  possess  in  the  old.  The  anxiety  of  each  to  be 
master  of  his  own  people,  upon  his  own  estate,  over  which  and 
over  whom  he  could  exercise  the  authority  and  support  an  imi- 
tation of  the  habits  of  a  lord,  induced  them  first  to  plant  them- 
selves at  unsafe  distances  from  each  other,  upon  large  properties 
of  wild  land,  of  no  value  except  speculatively,  and  thus  frequent- 
ly to  endanger  the  destruction  of  the  colony  by  the  Indians,  and 
always  to  confine  its  industry  to  the  bare  support  of  its  popula- 
tion and  the  profitless  production  of  one  poor  herb. 

Even  before  the  seizure  of  the  country  by  the  king,  and  the 
general  granting  of  patents  to  individuals,  some  of  these  gentle- 
men, ambitious  to  be  lords  of  land,  had  obtained  grants  by 
special  arrangement  with  the  charter  holders.  One  of  these, 
Captain  Newport,  who  brought  with  him  fifty  servants  and  ten- 
ants, over  whom  he  exercised  a  magistrate's  authority,  built  a 
fortress  for  the  defense  of  his  settlement,  and  being  a  man  of 
bravery,  good  judgment,  and  benevolent  disposition,  was  an 
extremely  valuable  acquisition  to  the  country.  But  the  others 
were  of  different  character,  and  added  to  the  disorder  of  the 
Colony.     "  Among  the  rest,"  says  Beverly,  "  one  Captain  Mar- 


23C  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

tin,  having  made  considerable  preparations  towards  a  settlement, 
obtained  a  suitable  grant  of  land,  and  was  made  of  the  council 
there.  But  he,  grasping  still  at  more,  hanker' d  after  dominion, 
as  well  as  possession,  and  caused  so  many  differences,  that  at 
last  he  put  all  things  in  distraction,"  etc. 

In  a  letter  of  John  Eolfe  to  the  king,  1617,  he  says  of  the 
Virginia  gentlemen  :  "  All  would  be  Keisars  (kings),  none  inferior 
to  the  others." 

Beverly  again  (writing  about  eighty  years  after  the  country 
was  thrown  open  to  private  adventurers,  and  having  still  the 
advantage  of  personal  intercourse  with  the  gentry  who  were  thus 
attracted  to  the  country,  himself  a  Virginian),  speaks  thus  of  the 
effect  of  the  measure  : 

"  This  Liberty  of  taking  up  Land,  and  the  ambition  every 
Man  had  of  being  Lord  of  a  vast,  tho'  unimprov'd  Territory,  *  * 
*  *  has  made  the  country  fall  into  such  an  unhappy  Settlement 
and  Course  of  Trade,  that  to  this  Day,  there  is  not  one  place  of 
Cohabitation  among  them,  that  may  reasonably  bear  the  name 
of  a  Town." 

THE    EARLY    TOBACCO    CULTURE    OF   VIRGINIA. 

The  light,  rich  mould,  resting  on  the  sandy  soils  of  Eastern 
Virginia,  was  exactly  suited  to  the  cultivation  of  tobacco,  and 
no  better  climate  for  this  plant  was  to  be  found  on  the  globe. 
This  bad  just  been  sufficiently  proved,  and  a  suitable  method  of 
culture  learned  experimentally,  when  the  land  was  offered  to 
individual  proprietors  by  the  king.  Very  little  else  was  to  be 
obtained  from  the  soil  which  would  be  of  value  to  send  to  Eu- 
rope, without  an  application  to  it  of  a  higher  degree  of  art  than 
the  slaves,  or  stupid,  careless  servants  of  the  proprietors  could 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  237 

readily  be  forced  to  use.  Although  tobacco  had  then  been  intro- 
duced into  England  but  a  few  years,  an  enormous  number  of 
persons  had  initiated  themselves  in  the  appreciation  of  its  myste- 
rious value.  The  king,  having  taken  a  violent  prejudice  against 
it,  though  he  saw  no  harm  in  the  distillation  of  grain,  had  for- 
bidden that  it  should  be  cultivated  in  England.  Virginia,  there- 
fore, had  every  advantage  to  supply  the  demand. 

Merchants  and  the  supercargoes  of  ships,  arriving  with  slaves 
from  Africa,  or  manufactured  goods,  spirits,  or  other  luxuries 
from  England,  very  gladly  bartered  them  with  the  planters  for 
tobacco,  but  for  nothing  else.  Tobacco,  therefore,  stood  for 
money,  and  the  passion  for  raising  it,  to  the  exclusion  of  every- 
thing else,  became  a  mania,  like  the  "  California  fever  "  of  1849. 

The  culture  being  once  established,  there  were  many  reasons 
growing  out  of  the  social  structure  of  the  colony  which,  for 
more  than  a  century,  kept  the  industry  of  the  Virginians  con- 
fined to  this  one  staple.  These  reasons  were  chiefly  the 
difficulty  of  breaking  the  slaves,  or  training  the  bond-servants 
to  new  methods  of  labor,  the  want  of  enterprise  or  ingenuity 
in  the  proprietors  to  contrive  other  profitable  occupations  for 
them,  and  the  difficulty  or  expense  of  distributing  the  guard 
or  oversight,  without  which  it  was  impossible  to  get  any  work 
done  at  all,  if  the  laborers  were  separated,  or  worked  in  any 
other  way  than  side  by  side,  in  gangs,  as  in  the  tobacco-fields. 
Owing  to  these  causes,  the  planters  kept  On  raising  tobacco 
with  hardly  sufficient  intermission  to  provide  themselves  with 
the  grossest  animal  sustenance,  though  often,  by  reason  of 
the  excessive  quantity  raised,  scarcely  anything  could  be  got 
for  it. 

Tobacco   is  not  now  considered  peculiarly  and  excessively 


238  OUR    SLAVE     STATES-. 

exhaustive :  in  a  judicious  rotation,  especially  as  a  preparation  for 
wheat,  it  is  an  admirable  fallow-crop,  and,  under  a  scientific  system 
of  agriculture,  it  is  grown' with  no  continued  detriment  to  the  soil. 
But  in  Virginia  it  was  grown  without  interruption  or  alternation, 
and  the  fields  rapidly  deteriorated  in  fertility.  As  they  did  so^ 
the  crops  grew  smaller,  in  proportion  to  the  labor  expended 
upon  them.  Yet,  from  the  continual  importation  of  laborers, 
the  total  crops  of  the  colony  increased  annually,  and  the  market 
value  fell  proportionately  to  the  better  supply.  With  smaller 
return  for  labor,  and  lower  prices,  the  planters  soon  found  them- 
selves becoming  bankrupts  instead  of  nabobs. 

How  could  they  help  themselves  ?  Only  by  forcing  the 
merchants  to  pay  them  higher  prices.  But  how  to  do  that,  when 
every  planter  had  his  crop  pledged  in  advance,  and  was  obliged 
to  hurry  it  off  at  any  price,  he  could  get  for  it,  in  order  to  pay 
for  his  food,  and  drink,  and  clothing,  and  to  keep  his  head 
above  water,  at  credit  for  the  following  year  %*  The  crop  sup- 
plied more  tobacco  than  was  needed,  but  no  one  man  would 
cease  to  plant  it,  or  lessen  his  crop  for  the  general  good.  Then, 
it  was  agreed,  all  men  must  be  made  to  do  so,  and  the  colonial 
legislature  was  called  upon  to  make  them.  Acts  were  accord- 
ingly passed,  to  prevent  any  planter  from  cultivating  more  than 
a  certain  number  of  plants  to  each  hand  he  employed  in  labor, 
and  prescribing  the  number  of  leaves  which  might  be  per- 
mitted to  ripen  upon  each  plant  permitted  to  be  grown.  An 
inspection   of    all   tobacco,    after   it    had    been  prepared    for 


*  "  The  merchants  will  trust  them  with  tools  and  necessaries  upon  the  credit  of 
their  crop,  before  it  is  grown.  So  they  again  plant  every  year  a  little  more 
than  the  year  before,  and  so  buy  everything  they  want,  with  the  crop  that  is 
before  them." — Moll  Flanders,  1683. 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  239 

market,  was  decreed,  and  the  inspectors  were  bound  by 
oath,  after  having  rejected  all  of  inferior  quality,  to  divide 
the  good  into  two  equal  parts,  and  then  to  burn  and  destroy 
one  of  them.  Thus,  it  was  expected  the  quantity  of  tobacco 
offered  for  sale  would  be  so  small,  that  merchants  would  be 
glad  to  pay  better  prices  for  it,  and  the  planters  would 
be  relieved   of  their   embarrassment. 

Simpler  methods  were  sometimes  employed,  however.  It 
was  once  ordered,  that  all  creditors  should  be  satisfied  to 
take  forty  pounds  for  every  hundred  due  them  from  the 
people  of  the  province,  at  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the 
act,  and  that  no  man  should  be  legally  held  to  perform 
above  one  half  of  any  covenants  about  freighting  tobacco, 
into  which  he  had  previously  had  the  good  fortune  to  enter. 
It  is  quite  probable  that,  at  this  time,  higher-law  opinions 
began  to  prevail  among  the  creditors  of  the  Virginia  plant- 
ers. 

Attempts,  even,  were  several  times  made,  to  stop  the  culture 
of  tobacco  altogether  for  a  year,  by  legislative  acts,  with  the 
intention  of  forcing  the  merchants  to  buy  what  was  on  hand, 
at  higher  prices,  and  with  the  hope  that  the  people,  if  they 
were  forbidden  to  spend  their  labor  upon  it,  would  direct  it 
to  some  other  industry.  These  schemes  were  always  given 
up  when  it  was  found  that  the  adjoining  colonies  were  pre- 
paring to  take  advantage  of  them,  by  planting  more  exten- 
sively than  usual. 

Similar  schemes  have  been  proposed  in  good  faith,  and 
deliberately  advocated  before  Southern  Conventions,  and  in 
Southern,  newspapers,  to  remedy  a  similar  evil,  with  which, 
in  our  own  day,  cotton-planters  have  afflicted  themselves. 


240  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

"WHAT    MIGHT    HAVE    BEEN. 

If  the  fathers  of  Virginia  had  had  the  courage  and  manli- 
ness to  enact  for  every  person  in  their  land,  whose  incom- 
petency to  exercise  his  natural  rights  should  not  have  been 
specially,  individually,  and  legally  ascertained  and  declared, 
an  equality  of  position  before  the  law,  and  in  the  control  of 
their  government;  if  they  had  taken  care  that  all  children,  of 
ordinary  capacity,  should  be  made  by  education  intellectually 
competent  to  exercise  their  natural  rights  and  perform  their 
natural  duties  to  society  and  to  their  posterity ;  if  they  had 
placed  a  reasonable  limit  upon  the  area  of  land  which  any 
one  individual  might  control,  to  the  exclusion  of  others  from 
cultivating  it ;  and  if  they  had  established  that  neither  tobacco 
nor  any  other  crop  might  be  twice  drawn  in  successive  years, 
from  the  same  soil,  it  may  be  thought  that  they  would  still 
have  been  exceeding  the  proper  limits  of  governmental  action 
— a  point  upon  which  it  is  natural  their  descendants  should 
be  nervously  apprehensive  ;  but,  had  they  done  so,  there  can 
be  no  doubt,  I  think,  that  the  people,  who  would  have  occu- 
pied the  territory  of  Virginia  at  this  day,  would  have  been 
in  a  far  happier  condition  than  those  who  now  remain  upon 
it;  and  I,  myself,  verily  believe  that  Virginia  would  now 
have  been  even  the  richest,  the  best  populated,  and  the  hap- 
piest commonwealth  in  America. 

But,  for  our  benefit,  they  made  an  experiment  of  another  sort 
of  legislation,  and,  inconsistent  as  are  the  laws  I  have  mentioned 
Avith  our  modern  "  democratic"  notions,  in  one  respect,  the  laisser 
faire  principle  reigned  in  their  politics,  as  completely  as  it  has 
since  ever  done  in  Virginia.  No  governmental  interference  was 
ever   allowed   to   prevent  the   planteis   from   defrauding   their 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  241 

posterity  of  trie  natural  wealth  of  the  land.  They  were, 
therefore,  able  to  live  sumptuously,  but  ever  discontentedly, 
as  spendthrifts  do,  and  always  staggering  with  debt,  though 
spending,  with  all  their  might,  their  capital  stock,  their  land's 
fertility. 

As  their  exhausted  fields  failed  to  meet  the  prodigal  drafts 
of  their  luxury,  they  only  made  further  clearings  in  tbe  forest, 
and  "  threw  out,"  to  use  their  own  phrase,  so  much  of  the  land 
as  they  had  ruined.  Year  after  year  the  process  continued ;  the 
richer  districts  were  all,  at  length,  gone  over ;  the  poorer  soils 
of  the  slopes  began  to  be  attacked ;  the  old-fields,  recuperating 
in  the  prudent  economy  of  nature,  after  many  years,  were  again 
cleared,  and,  now  with  some  aid  of  manure,  again,  for  a  short 
time,  found  capable  of  producing  tobacco. 

STYLE    OF    LIVING. 

What  this  enormous,  constant,  and  ruinous  production  of 
tobacco  was  needed  to  pay  for,  we  are  thus  informed. 

"  The  families  being  altogether  in'  country-seats,  they  have  their 
graziers,  seedsmen,  gardiners,  brewers,  bakers,  butchers,  and  cooks, 
within  themselves.  They  have  plenty  and  variety  of  provision  for 
their  table ;  and,  as  for  spicery,  and  other  things  that  the  country 
don't  produce,  they  have  constant  supplies  of  them  from  England. 
The  gentry  pretend  to  have  their  victuals  drest,  and  served  up,  as 
nicely  as  if  they  were  in  London.  Their  small  drink  is  either  wine 
and  water,  beer,  milk  and  water,  or  water  alone.  Their  richer  sort 
generally  brew  their  small  beer  with  malt  which  they  have  from 
England,  though  barley  grows  there  very  well.  Their  strong  drink 
is  Madeira  wine,  cider,  mobby  punch,  made  either  of  rum  from  the 
Caribbee  islands,  or  brandy  distilled  from  their  apples  and  peaches, 
besides  brandy,  wine,  and  strong  beer,  which  they  have  constantly 
from  England.  They  have  their  clothing  of  all  sorts  from  England. 
The  very  furs  that  their  hats  are  made  of,  perhaps,  go  first  from 
11 


242  'our   slave    states. 

thence ;  and  most  of  their  hides  lie  and  rot,  or  are  made  use  of  only 
for  covering  dry  goods  in  a  leaky  house.  Indeed,  some  few  hides,  with 
much  ado,  are  tanned  and  made  into  servants'  shoes  ;  but  at  so  careless 
a  rate,  that  the  planters  don't  care  to  buy  them  if  they  can  get  others  ; 
and  sometimes,  perhaps,  a  better  manager  than  ordinary  will  vouchsafe 
to  make  a  pair  of  breeches  of  a  deer-skin.  Nay,  they  are  such 
abominable  ill-husbands,  that  though  their  country  be  over-run  with 
wood,  yet  they  have  all  their  wooden  ware  from  England;  their 
cabinets,  chairs,  tables,  stools,  chests,  boxes,  cart-wheels,  and  all  other 
things,  even  so  much  as  their  bowls  and  birchen  brooms,  to  the  eternal 
reproach  of  their  laziness." — Beverley,  1620. 

And  "  Moll  Flanders"  says,  with  a  detail  characteristic  of  the 
author  of  Eobinson  Crusoe  : 

"  Here  we  had  (by  an  arrival  from  England)  a  supply  of  all  sorts 
of  clothes,  as  well  for  my  husband  as  myself ;  and  I  took  especial  care 
to  buy  for  him  all  those  things  that  I  knew  he  delighted  to  have ;  as 
two  good  long  wigs,  two  silver-hilted  swords,  three  or  four  fine  fowling- 
pieces,  a  fine  saddle,  with  holsters  and  pistols,  very  handsome,  with  a 

scarlet  cloak And  all  this  cargo  arrived  safe,  and  in  good 

condition,  with  three  women-servants,  lusty  wenches,  suitable  enough 
for  the  place  and  to  the  work  we  had  for  them  to  do,  one  of  which 
happened  to  come  double,  having  been  got  with  child  by  one  of  the 
seamen." 

They  had  also  to  support  the  little  dignity  of  their  little 
Court  with  perhaps — by  favor  of  the  King — as  much  rank  as 
that  of  a  real  Knight,  from  England,  at  its  head ;  and  their  little 
church,  with  its  thorough-bred  imported  "clergy,  and  its  little 
imitation  of  the  great  Church  of  England's  persecution  of 
sectaries.  A  bishop  could  not  be  afforded  them,  and  if  a  young 
Virginian  wished  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  the  Carpenter's  Son, 
he  crossed  the  ocean  for  a  qualifying  ceremony.* 

*  The  province  was  divided  into  parishes,  each  of  which  was  required  to  support 
a  minister,  at  a  salary  of  16,000  pounds  of  tobacco,  and  handsome  perquisites, 
such  as  two  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco  for  a  marriage,  and  four  hundred 
pounds  for  a  funeral  sermon.    The  eliurch-wardens  were  required  to  collect  the 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  243 

THE   WEALTH    AND    EXTRAVAGANCE    OF    THE   ARISTOCRACY. 

The  masses  of  the  people  continued  to  gain  in  nothing,  but 
that  animal  manliness  and  hatred  of  restraint  which  a  life  in  a 
wild  or  thinly-inhabited  country  always  has  a  strong  tendency 
to  encourage.  But  the  planters,  paying  but  a  trifle  for  their 
labor  and  monopolizing  its  profits,  and  enjoying  the  advantage 
of  any  rise  in  the  value  of  the  land  which  might  result  from 
the  constant  immigration  the  country  had  to  sustain,  not- 
withstanding they  were  always  embarrassed  with  debt,  and 
always  complaining  of  the  low  prices  at  which  their  creditors 
would  have  their  tobacco,  really  grew  richer  and  more  lordly ; 
and,  had  there  not  been  so  many,  all  jealous  of  each  other's 
preferment,  they  probably  would  have  become  nobles  indeed. 
They  were,  as  a  body,  the  nearest  approach  to  the  English 
aristocracy  which  America  has  ever  possessed,  not  only  in  their 
follies  and  vices,  but  in  their  virtues  and  excellences.  Of 
their  habits,  and  the  way  these  always  continued,  even  until 
after  the  Eevolution,  to  eat  away  the  natural  agricultural 
capital  of  the  country,  the  following  is  given,  by  one  of  their 
descendants,  in  the  pages  of  the  Southern  Planter. 

minister's  tobacco,  and  bring  it  to  him  in  hogsheads,  convenient  tor  snipping, 
"that  they  might  have  more  time  for  the  Exercises  of  their  Holy  Office,  and 
live  in  Decency  becoming  their  Order."  Beverley  observes  that  <:  the  labor 
of  a  dozen  negroes  does  but  answer  this  salary,  and  seldom  yields  a  greater 
crop  of  sweet-scented  tobacco  than  is  allowed  to  each  of  the  ministers." 
Besides  their  salary,  a  house  and  glebe  was  required  to  be  provided  the 
ministers  ;  and  it  is  mentioned  that,  sometimes,  "  stocks  of  cattle  and  negroes  " 
were  added  by  donation,  for  which  they  were  only  required  to  surrender  an 
equal  value  on  leaving  the  parish.  All  ministers  were  required  to  be  ordained 
in  England,  and  to  be  endorsed  by  the  Governor,  and  there  were  laws  to 
prevent  dissenting  preachers  from  entering  the  province.  In  1720,  a  meeting 
of  the  Friends ,  in  Nasemond  County,  was  the  only  congregation  of  Dissenters ; 
others  had  existed,  Beverley  mentions,  but  were  now  extinct;  and,  "  it  was 
observed,  by  letting  them  alone,  tliey  decreased  daily." 


244  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

"  The  more  wealthy  proprietors,  having  no  occupation  of  industry, 
spent  their  time  mostly  in  seeking  pleasure.  Yisits  to  each  other  were 
frequent  and  protracted.  It  was  rare  that  any  one  of  this  class  was 
without  some  company,  either  at  home  or  abroad.  Besides  such  exer- 
cise of  reciprocal  hospitality,  every  idle  or  homeless  '  gentleman'  of  the 
whole  country  found  in  every  mansion  a  comfortable  sojourning-place, 
and,  at  least,  the  outward  show,  if  not  the  reality  of  welcome,  so  long  as 
he  might  choose  to  stay.  Of  course,  visits  from  such  persons  were  ordi- 
nary occurrences — and  were  sometimes  protracted  for  weeks  or  months. 
That  this  particular  neighborhood  was  not  '  eaten  out'  by  this  class  of 
genteel  and  honorable  vagrants  and  spongers,  was  not  because  of  their 
deficiency  of  numbers,  or  of  active  use  of  their  facilities,  but  because 
they  had  like  privileges  in  every  part  of  the  country.  This  race,  fortu- 
nately, is  now  extinct ;  but  many  such  individuals  are  still  remembered, 
who,  for  many  years  of  their  adult  life,  and  some  for  their  whole  life, 
pursued  no  other  business,  and  had  no  other  means  of  support,  except 
visiting  their  friends  ;  of  course  they  counted  their  friends  by  hundreds. 

"  The  wealthier  proprietors  were  not  only  hospitable  and  kind  hosts, 
but  also  refined  and  pleasing  companions.  Their  fathers'  wealth  had 
served  to  give  to  them  the  education  and  manners  of  good  society.  "With 
many  excellent  social  and  moral  qualities,  their  habits  of  idleness  and 
pleasure-seeking  naturally  led  to  the  attendant  and  consequent  vices. 
Social  drinking  was  often  carried  to  excess  ;  and  card-playing  was  sure 
to  be  introduced  whenever  as  many  neighbors  dined  together  as  served 
to  make  up  a  game  of  loo.  Horse-racing  was  a  favorite  amusement  of 
all  classes  ;  some  of  the  farmers  owned  and  ran  race-horses,  and  nearly 
all  reared  horses  of  the  high  blood,  and  at  the  high  cost  required  for  the 
turf." 

How  like  this  is  to  the  "true  Irish  gentleman,"  of  ten  or 
twenty  years  ago.  But  let  it  not  be  forgotten  that,  when  the 
time  of  retribution  came,  the  slaves  suffered  no  physical  want 
— the  peasant  starved. 

No  man  of  wealth,  or  with  a  moderate  estate,  thought  of 
attending  personally  to  his  farming.  Every  detail  of  manage- 
ment was  intrusted  to  the  overseers,  who  were  rarely  stimu- 
lated by  even  the  general  superintendence  and  control  of   their 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  245 

employers.  Overseers'  wages  were  generally  paid  in  a  certain 
share  or  proportion  of  the  crops  they  made.  Thus,  they  had 
a  direct  interest  in  drawing  from  the  land  and  labor  as  much 
as  possible,  during  the  current  year  of  their  engagement ;  and 
none  whatever  in  preserving  or  increasing  the  productive 
power  of  the  land  for  later  times.  It  came  to  be  recognized, 
as  a  maxim  of  agricultural  morals,  that  "  it  was  not  just  for 
a  proprietor  to  interfere  with,  and  change,  his  overseer's  designed 
direction  of  the  labors  of  the  farm,  inasmuch  as  any  abstraction 
from  immediate  product,  for  the  sake  of  future  improvement, 
operated  to  lessen  the  overseer's  profits  for  the  present  year." 
This  doctrine  accorded  so  well  with  the  disposition  of  every 
indolent,  careless,  and  wasteful  proprietor,  then  it  is  no  wonder 
that  it  came  to  be  generally  received,  and  conformed  to  in 
practice. 

A  carefully-drawn  picture  of  the  social  condition  and  habits 
of  the  people  of  Virginia,  at  a  period  not  long  before  the 
Eevolution,  is  given  by  a  writer  for  Putnam's  Monthly,  who, 
from  the  close  topographical  knowledge,  of  some  parts  of  the 
State,  he  displays,  and  other  internal  evidence,  is  evidently 
also  a  Virginian.     I  quote  what  is  most  pertinent. 

— "  Newspapers,  and  literature  at  large,  were  a  proscribed  com- 
modity, thanks  to   Sir  William  Berkeley  and  his  successors.*     He 

*  Sir  William  Berkeley  had  said,  being  then  Governor  of  Virginia  :  "  I  thank 
God  there  are  no  free  schools  nor  printing,  and  I  hope  we  shall  not  have  them 
these  hundred  years."  At  this  time,  when  Boston  contained  five  printing 
offices,  and  as  many  booksellers'  shops,  there  was  not  one  of  either  in  all  the 
rich  and  populous  Southern  colonies  of  Virginia,  Maryland,  and  Carolina. 
Progress,  since,  in  this  particular,  has  closely  corresponded  with  that  of 
all  other  industrial  progress  in  the  slave  countries.  The  publication  of  a 
book,  at  Richmond — an  event  occurring  not  oftener,  on  an  average,  than 
once  a  year — is  as  much  a  subject  of  universal  congratulation,  by  all  the 
public  press  of  the  South,   as  the  birth  of  a  royal  heir  is  in  England.     No 


246  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

[the  Virginia  gentleman]  knew  not  what  was  going  on  in  the  next 
county,  and  the  man  who  had  made  a  journey  to  the  little  metro- 
polis of  Middle  Plantation,  or  Williamsburg,  was  listened  to,  by  his 
neighbors,  as  a  miniature  Herodotus.  At  intervals  a  vessel  arrived 
from  London  or  the  West  Indies,  which  brought,  with  a  new  Order  in 
Council,  or  a  fresh  installment  of  negroes,  some  confused  items  of  foreign 
news  ;  or,  perhaps,  some  young  Virginian,  fresh  from  Oxford  or  Cam- 
bridge, astonished  the  country  gentlemen  of  his  native  county,  with  the 
last  intelligence  from  the  mother-country — the  newest  Parisian  mode — 
or,  better  still,  brought,  in  his  traveling-trunk,  the  best  productions  of 
English  or  European  writers,  or  the  earlier  numbers  of  the  Gentle- 
man's Magazine,  or  a  file  of  London  papers,  which  would  afford  pleasant 
reading,  for  the  next  month,  to  the  neighbors  for  miles  around." 

"  There  were  no  cities  in  Virginia,  even  no  towns,  at  the  time  of 
which  we  speak.  The  country  gentleman  had  a  peculiar  and  most 
genuine  dislike  to  centralization  in  every  form.  He  had  an  aversion, 
too,  to  much  government,  and  gladly  encountered  the  alternative  of  too 
little,  if  he  was  but  left  to  lord  it  in  peace  and  quiet  over  his  '  large  and 
well-conditioned  household,'  [a  household,  be  it  remembered,  which 
might  be  numbered  by  hundreds].  Here  he  was  supreme  lord — a 
species  of  feudal  baron,  living  in  a  sort  of  noble  profusion  and  ease, 
which  gave  room  for  all  his  peculiarities  and  idiosyncrasies  to  spread 
themselves  at  will,  and  gratified  at  once  his  hobby  of  paramount  rule, 
and  his  virtue  of  liberal  and  indiscriminate  hospitality.  In  vain  did 
Government,  whether  in  London  or  Williamsburg,  fulminate  act  after 


book,  I  presume,  ever  paid  for  the  cost  of  its  publication,  by  its  Southern 
circulation  alone,  unless  it  was  a  strongly  sectional,  or  a  religious  book. 
There  is  a  constant  complaint  that  the  circulation  of  Northern  magazines 
at  the  South  prevents  Southern  magazines  from  being  supported ;  and  fre- 
quent efforts  are  made  to  hinder  people  from  taking  them,  by  accusations  of 
their  hostility  to  Southern  interests,  or  their  indifference  to  Southern  prejudices. 
It  is  a  ridiculous  mistake.  The  old  Southern  Literary  Messenger  probably 
sold  more  at  the  North,  in  proportion  to  its  whole  circulation,  although  it  never 
flunkied  to  the  North  at  all,  than  any  Northern  periodical  sells  at  the  South, 
in  proportion  to  its  Northern  circulation.  No  Northern  magazine  would  live 
a  month,  at  least  in  its  present  excellence,  on  its  Southern  circulation  alone; 
and  none,  I  believe,  not  prepared  expressly  for  the  Southern  market,  has  a 
tithe  of  its  whole  circulation  in  the  Slave  Stains.  ,No  Northen  editor  fears 
especially  to  offend  the  South,  as  is  generally  supposed ;  but  many  fear  that,  if 
they  do  offend  the  South,  they  will  be  calumniated  and  injured  at  the  North. 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  247 

act  at  this  instinct ;  decreeing,  even,  that  tobacco,  the  staple  of 
Virginia,  should  not  be  shipped,  except  at  certain  spots  upon  the 
rivers ;  in  vain  were  towns  laid  and  incorporated.  The  cities  did  not 
appear,  the  towns  were  not  built  up ;  and  these  localities  remain  to 
this  day,  with  their  dilapidated  wharves,  and  old  crumbled  warehouses 
— an  eloquent  memento  of  the  vain  attempt  to  force  this  stubborn  race 
from  what  they  clung  to  with  the  pertinacity  of  martyrs — their  isolated 
country  life. 

"  But  this  life  was  not  in  another  sense  isolated.  At  every  court-day, 
the  country  was  brought  together ;  visits  were  courteously  exchanged 
between  neighbors  ;  and  the  owner  was  proud  of  his  fine-blooded  horse, 
his  trotting-mares,  or  his  six  well-conditioned  grays,  which  thunder  along 
with  the  old  family  chariot.  This  vehicle,  which  has  come  all  the  way 
from  London,  was,  on  all  occasions  of  ceremony,  of  indispensable 
importance,  and,  in  journeys  of  any  length,  it  ever  came  prominently 
into  play :  that  was  no  trifle  to  travel,  in  state,  the  twenty  or  thirty 
miles  a  day  which  it  accomplished.  The  coachman  must  time  his  posts 
by  the  road-side  taverns,  or  private  residences  competent  to  recruit  the 
energies  of  himself,  his  animals,  and  the  half-dozen  persons,  who  tem- 
porarily existed  in  this  moving  mansion.  The  appearance  of  the  coach 
was  ever  greeted,  by  the  artisan  or  humble  farmer,  with  great  respect, 
but  ill-concealed  distaste.  The  pedestrian  was  covered  with  a  cloud  of 
dust,  as  it  rolled  grandly  onward ;  and  the  humble  carter  must  carefully 
keep  from  the  middle  of  the  road,  otherwise  a  splintered  wheel  and  a 
roll  in  the  dirt  would  warn  him  to  make  way  the  next  time  for  the 
'gentry'  Honorable,  hospitable,  and,  at  the  bottom  of  their  hearts, 
kind  and  charitable,  they  yet  nursed  a  high  and  overweening  sense 
of  their  own  importance  and  dignity.  Long  supremacy  among  their 
negroes  and  indented  servants  had  taught  them  to  expect  implicit 
obedience  from  all  inferiors ;  and,  if  any  one,  so  unfortunate  as  to 
belong  to  the  commons,  and  thus  to  be  inferior  to  them  in  blood, 
refinement,  or  possessions,  did  not  yield  to  their  arrogance,  every 
means  was  put  in  requisition  to  reduce  him  to  his  proper  level.  Such 
a  man  was  always  welcome  to  the  best  the  '  gentleman  Proprietor's ' 
table  afforded ;  he  was  treated  kindly,  assisted,  if  need  be ;  but,  with 
the  profuse  hospitality  lavished  on  him,  all  connection  between  them 
ended.  To  do  more  would  be  to  forget  what,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
he  could  never  lose  sight  of — the  fact  that  he  was  one  of  the  gentry — his 
guest,  a  commoner." 


248  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

That  hospitality  was  ever  so  general  a  virtue  among  the 
common  people  in  Old  Virginia,  as  to  entitle  them  to  the  repu- 
tation they  have  acquired  for  it,  there  is  some  reason  to 
doubt.  "  There  being  no  inns  in  the  country,  strangers 
were  entertained  at  the  houses  of  the  inhabitants,  and  were 
frequently  involved  in  lawsuits  by  the  exorbitant  claims  of  their 
liosts  for  indemnification  of  the  expenses  of  their  entertainment."* 
This  refers  to  the  latter   days  of  the  colony  more  especially. 

INDUSTRIAL    CONDITION    OF   VIRGINIA    IN    THE    HALCYON    PAST. 

Beverley  gives  a  detailed  account  of  the  industrial  condi- 
tion of  the  Province  early  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

"In  extreme  fruit  fulnefs,"  he  fays,  "it  is  exceeded  by  no  Other." 
"  No  Seed  is  fown  there  but  it  thrives,  and  moil:  of  the  Northern 
Plants  are  improved  by  being  tranfplanted  thither."  "And yet  there's 
very  little  Improvement  made  among  them,  feldom  Anything  us'd  in 
Traffick  but  Tobacco."  "Fruit  trees  are  wonderfully  quick  of  Growth. 
Yet  they  are  very  few  that  take  any  Care  at  all  for  an  Orchard  ; 
nay,  many  that  have  good  Orchards  are  Co  negligent  of  them,  as  to 
let  them  go  to  Ruin,  and  expofe  the  Trees  to  be  torn  and  bark'd  by- 
Cattle."  "  A  Garden  is  nowhere  fooner  form'd  than  here,  and  yet 
they  ha'nt  many  Gardens  in  the  Country  fit  to  bear  the  Name  of 
Gardens."  "All  Sorts  of  Englifh  Grain  thrive  yet,  they  don't  make  a 
Trade  of  any  of  them."  "  The  Sheep  increafe  well,  and  bear  good 
Fleeces ;  but  they  are  generally  fuffered  to  be  torn  off  their  Backs  by 
Briars  and  Bufhes,  or  elfe  are  left  rotting  on  the  Dunghill  with  their 
Skins."  "  The  Woods  produce  great  variety  of  Incense  and  fweet 
Gums,  Honey  and  Sugar.  Yet  there's  no  ufe  made  of  any  of  them, 
either  for  Profit  or  Refrefhment."  "All  Sorts  of  Naval  Stores  may 
be  produced  there,  as  Pitch,  Tar,  Turpentine,  Plank,  Timber,  and 
all  Sorts  of  Malls  and  Yards,  befides  Sails,  Cordage  and  Iron  ;  and  all 
thefe  may  be  tranfported  by  an  easy  Water-carriage." 

"  Thefe  and  a  thoufand  other  Advantages  that  Country  produces, 
which  its  Inhabitants  make  no  manner  of  ufe  of.  They  can  fee  their 
Naval  Stores  daily  Benefit  other  People,  who  fend  thither  to  build 
Ships.     They  receive   no  Benefit  nor   Refrefhment  from  the  sweet 

*  Grahaine's  Hist,  of  N.  A. 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  249 

and  precious  Things  they  have  growing  amongft  them ;  but  make 
ufe  of  the  Induftry  of  England  for  all  fuch  Things. 

"  What  Advantage  do  they  fee  the  neighboring  Plantations  make 
of  their  Grain  and  Provifions,  while  they,  who  can  produce  them 
infinitely  better,  not  only  negledt  the  making  a  Trade  thereof,  but 
even  a  necefsary  Provifion  againft  an  accidental  Scarcity,  contenting 
themfelves  with  a  Supply  of  Food  from  Hand  to  Mouth ;  fo,  that  if 
it  fhould  pleafe  God  to  send  them  an  unfeafonable  Year,  there  would 
not  be  found  in  the  Country  Provifions  fufficient  to  fupport  the 
People  for  three  Months  extraordinary  ! 

"  They  depend  upon  the  Liberality  of  Nature,  without  endeavor- 
ing to  improve  its  Gifts  by  Art  or  Induftry.  They  fponge  upon 
the  Bleffings  of  a  warm  Sun  and  a  fruitful  Soil,  and  almoft  grutch 
the  Pains  of  gathering  in  the  Bounties  of  the  Earth.  I  fhould  be 
afhamed  to  publifh  this  flothful  Indolence  of  my  Countrymen,  but, 
that  I  hope  it  will  fome  time  or  other  roufe  them  out  of  their  Le- 
thargy, and  excite  them  to  make  the  moft  of  all  thefe  happy  Advan- 
tages which  Nature  has  given  them ;  and  if  it  does  this,  I  am  fure  they 
will  have  the*  Goodnefs  to  forgive  me." — Beverley,  p.  284. 

We  Americans  have  now  a  habit  of  congratulating  each 
other  on  the  material  prosperity  and  independence  of  our 
country,  and  of  glorifying  our  wise  government  and  our  "free 
institutions,"  as  the  cause  of  it.  But  Ave  should  not  forget  that 
we  have  lately,  by  the  dignified  and  deliberate  act  of  the 
Kepublic's  servants,  given  free  range,  over  millions  of  fertile 
acres,  to  essentially  the.  same  institutions  of  society  which 
produced,  and  which  still,  spite  of  every  advantageous  sur- 
rounding, are  still  maintaining,  in  Virginia,  that  paralysis  of 
enterprise  and  imbecility  of  industry,  thus  pathetically  deplored 
a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago. 

When  Beverley  speaks  of  the  adjoining  colonies,  as  taking 
the  trade  of  Virginia,  he  can  refer  only  to  the  more  democratic 
and  free-laboring  Northern  colonies.  In  the  Carolinas,  an  ex- 
actly similar  state  of  things  existed  to  that  in  Virginia 

So  early  as  1676,  it  is  recorded  that  "New  England  traders, 
11* 


250  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

penetrating  into  the  interior  of  the  province  of  Albemarle,  and 
bringing  their  goods  to  every  man's  door,  had  obtained  a 
monopoly  of  the  produce  of  the  province.  The  proprietors  in 
England  endeavored,  in  vain,  to  substitute  a  direct  intercourse 
"with  Britain,  for  this  disadvantageous  commerce."® 

In  1677,  the  chief  magistrate  of  this  province  was  deposed 
and  imprisoned  by  an  insurrection  of  the  people,  consequent 
upon  an  attempt  to  interrupt  the  New  England  trade.  The 
Assembly  having  once  complained  that  the  English  proprietors 
did  not  give  sufficient  encouragement  to  immigration,  and  that 
the  country  consequently  suffered  from  a  deficiency  of  tradesmen 
and  mechanics,  they  (the  English  proprietors)  made  answer 
that  the  inconvenience  complained  of  was  promoted  by  the 
complainants — 

"  By  the  lazy  rapacity  with  which  each  desired  to  surround 
himself  with  a  large  expanse  of  property,  over  which  he  could 
exercise  no  other  act  of  ownership  than,  that  of  excluding  the 
occupants  by  whom  it  might  be  most  advantageously  culti- 
vated." 

The  Assembly,  however,  followed  its  own  counsel,  and  decreed 
that  none  should  be  sued  for  debt,  within  the  limits  of  its  juris- 
diction, for  five  years  after  his  arrival ;  that  no  inhabitant  should 
accept  a  power  of  attorney  to  collect  debts  contracted  abroad, 
etc.  This  had  the  desired  effect  of  attracting  immigration; 
but  not  of  a  very  respectable  or  valuable  character.  Virginia 
and  Maryland  both  had  laws  of  similar  import. 

That  Beverley  did  not  exaggerate  the  danger  of  famine,  at  a 
time  when  the  annual  export  of  tobacco,  to  pay  for  clothing, 
slaves,  and  other  imported  necessities  and  luxuries,  was  between 

*  Grahame's  Hist,  of  North  America,  p.  120. 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  251 

thirty  and  forty  millions  of  pounds  annually,*  is  evident  from 
the  legislative  precautions  taken  to  prevent  it.  The  prices  of 
every  other  product  except  corn  were,  at  one  time,  fixed  by  law, 
with  the  avowed  purpose  of  inducing  farmers  to  plant  it ;  three 
officers  were  appointed  in  every  county,  for  the  express  purpose 
of  obliging  every  settler  to  plant  and  tend  sufficient  corn-ground 
to  insure  an  adequate  supply  to  maintain  his  own  family ! 
Public  granaries  were  established,  to  which  every  planter  was 
ordered  to  contribute  one  bushel  of  corn,  annually,  to  be  dis- 
posed of  as  the  Commonwealth  should  require.  I  am  told, 
and  the  Southern  agricultural  journals  confirm  it,  that  such 
laws  are  needed  now,  in  some  parts  of  the  cotton  States,  and 
would  be  advocated,  but  for  the  shame  of  publishing  to  the 
North  the  irreformable  improvidence  of  the  people. 

Some  of  my  readers  may  require  yet  to  have  it  explained  how- 
it  was  that  land  monopoly,  slavery,  and  servile  or  degraded  and 
ignorant  labor  led  to  that  state  of  things  which  Beverley  be- 
wailed, and  which,  indeed,  to  this  day  constitutes,  strangely 
enough,  both  the  glory  and  the  shame,  which  is  the  basis  alike 
of  the  silly  vanity  and  the  impotent  anger  of  the  sons  of  the 
Virginia  cavaliers. 

Manufactories  and  mechanic  arts  of  all  sorts  thrive  best 
in  towns  or  dense  communities,  because  different  branches 
assist  each  other,  not  only  morally,  by  stimulating  mental  ac- 
tivity, but  materially.  The  carriage-maker  calls  upon  the  black- 
smith, the  currier,  and  the  worker  in  leather ;  the  blacksmith 
may,  at  any  time,  be  glad  of  the  services  of  the  currier,  the 
cobbler,  or  the  wheel-wright,  to  mend  his  bellows.  The  spinners 
and  weavers  need  to  have  near  them,  masons,  machinists,  and 

*  De  Bow's  Resources,  iii.,  p.  347. 


252  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

mill-wrights.  All  need  farmers  (not  planters)  to  supply 
their  daily  needs.  In  a  country,  therefore,  where  all  men 
"mind  nothing  hut  to  be  masters  of  a  great  estate,  and  to 
plant  themselves  separately  on .  their  several  plantations," 
trades  and  manufactures  are  not  likely  to  thrive.  But, 
suppose  one  of  these  plantation  lords  to  own  a  large  number 
of  boys  whose  labor  he  desires  to  appropriate  most  advan- 
tageously to  himself.  The  employment  to  which  they  must 
be  trained  cannot  be  of  such  a  character  as  to  require  the 
use  of  much  discretion;  because  there  can  be  no  sufficient 
motive  to  induce  them  to  exercise  it,  which  does  not  involve 
personal  interest  in  the  object  of  that  employment,  and 
therefore,  a  partnership  in  its  possession,  or  a  receipt  of 
wages  in  some  proportion  to  skill.  In  proportion,  also, 
to  the  amount  of  discretion  required  of  a  slave,  the 
reins  of  authority  must  be  slackened.  If  he  uses  his  own 
skill,  he  must  go  his  own  way.  If  he  goes  his  own  way, 
he  will  go  negligently  and  with  all  possible  indolence, 
unless  he  has  some  advantage  for  himself  to  gain,  by  care 
and  dispatch.  This  he  hardly  can  have,  if  the  result  of  his 
labor  is  to  inure  wholly  to  the  advantage  of  another.  The 
selfishness,  therefore,  of  the  owner  of  a  slave-boy,  will  lead 
him  to  undertake  to  make  the  boy  labor  at  such  simple'  work 
and  under  such  circumstances  as  will  keep  him  most  easily 
and  certainly  under  his  control. 

It  is  a  fact  that  slave-mechanics,  manufacturers'  hands,  steve- 
dores, servants,  and  those  engaged  in  almost  all  employments 
superior  to  that  of  field-hands,  in  the  Southern  States,  are, 
nearly  always,  "gratified"  with  some  sort  of  wages,  or  per- 
quisites, or  stimulants,  to  skill  and  industry,  in  some  form ;  and 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  253 

are  more  intelligent,  more  privileged,  and  more  insubordinate 
than  the  general  mass.  This  will  be  sufficiently  apparent  from 
observations  I  shall  hereafter  record. 


THE    REVOLUTION    OP    1776. 

"  The  struggle  for  equality  in  all  the  relations  of  life,  for  the  liberty  of  man 
against  the  dominion  of  man,  is  necessarily  founded  on  the  consciousness  of 
the  importance  of  the  individual. 

"  Their  motto  is,  All  by  the  People :  their  practice,  Nothing  for  the  People." 
— Introduction  to  a  History  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

Gervinus. 

Ignorance  is  weakness ;  and  the  ignorant  man  instinctively 
merges  his  ambition  and  his  claims  of  justice  with  those  of  an 
aggregate — makes  that  aggregate  an  object  of  partiality  and 
bigotry,  and  finds  satisfaction  for  his  enthusiasm  in  the  success 
of  those  who  guide  and  represent  it,  though  that  success  in  no 
wise  affect  his  own  interest. 

The  peculiar  political  aspiration  of  the  people  of  Virginia, 
as  a  whole,  was,  on  this  account,  less  to  maintain  due  considera- 
tion for  individual  rights,  than  to  obtain  and  preserve  communal 
independence  and  notoriety. 

The  wealthy  and  educated  class,  however,  while  they  were 
entirely  en  rapport  with  the  general  communal  spirit,  were  also 
remarkably  characterized  by  personal  assumption  and  dignity. 
And  this,  because  the  smallness  of  their  number,  proportion- 
ately to  the  whole  people,  and  their  widely-separated  residences, 
gave  to  each  a  high  local  consideration  and  power,  and  led 
to  inordinate  self-respect. 

The  unusual  and  unexpected  exactions  of  the  exterior,  royal 
government  aroused,  therefore,  among  the  influential  class  of 
Virginians,  a  more  passionate  discontent  than  elsewhere;  while 


254  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

the  poor  people  were  more  ready,  than  those  of  other  colonies, 
perhaps,  to  encourage  a  disposition  in  their  leaders  to  commu- 
nal independence. 

Virginia,  therefore,  was  early  and  determined,  in  the  expres- 
sion of  her  dissatisfaction  with  the  royal  impositions  Avhich  led 
to  the  Eevolution. 

Yet  great  agitation,  much,  and  rapid,  and  excited  progress  of 
thought,  was  necessary,  before  the  aristocratic  or  the  yeoman 
class  could  come  to  the  point  of  actual  treason,  or  bring  to  it 
the  poor,  and  ignorant,  and  the  superstitiously  loyal. 

If  it  was  right  for  them  to  resist  these  demands  of  their  king, 
the  conscientious  would  ask,  how  should  they  define  what  de- 
mands it  was  not  right  to  resist1?  If  their  royal  master's 
authority  was  exercised  by  right  divine,  it  was  wrong  for  them 
to  resist  it  at  all — nay,  even  to  feel  discontent.  If  it  was  not 
by  right  divine,  then  by  what  right  ?  On  what  right  rests  any 
governmental  authority?  Is  there  no  alternative  between 
despotism  and  anarchy?    What  is  the  basis  of  civil  government? 

There  could  be  no  hearty,  united,  and  determined  resistance, 
while  these  questions  were  left  without  some  logically-satisfactory 
answer.  The  people  at  large  could  not  be  called  upon,  and 
stirred  up  to  a  spirited  defense,  without  knowing,  more  clearly, 
what  it  was  that  was  to  be  defended — what  they  were  to  gain. 
Stamp-acts  and  tea-taxes  did  not  really  trouble  the  great  ma- 
jority of  Virginians,  in  the  slightest  degree,  personally,  only  the 
people  of  some  property — for  the  mass  were  still  illiterate  vaga- 
bonds ;  but,  even  among  the  better  sort,  no  man  could  trust 
another,  till  each  knew  what  all  wanted,  and  to  what  limit  all 
were  prepared  to  stand  out. 

The  best  men  in  the  Province — those  in  whose  goodness, 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  255 

wisdom,  and  bravery,  their  neighbors  had  most  confidence — 
were,  therefore,  appointed  to  make  a  declaration  of  the  principles 
and  purposes  by  and  for  which  the  government  of  Virginia 
should  thereafter  be  guided,  and  which  should  constitute  a  plat- 
form broad  enough  for  all  to  stand  upon,  without  jealousies  and 
distrusts,  and  so  just  and  reasonable  as  to  command  the  respect 
and  fealty  of  every  individual,  and  of  all  classes. 

The  instrument  of  this  declaration  is  still  preserved,  as  a 
curious  historical  relic,  in  Virginia,  and  is  interesting,  if,  for 
nothing  else,  as  an  evidence  to  what  lengths  men  will  go,  when 
they  have  set  their  hearts  upon  an  object  and  find  it  desperate 
business  to  accomplish  it.  For  it  announces  principles  which 
the  intelligent  classes  in  Virginia,  always  before  and  generally 
since,  have  held  to  be  absurd,  preposterous,  and  dangerous. 

For  instance,  it  asserts  the  equality  of  men,  in  freedom  and 
independence — a  "  self-evident  absurdity,"  as  they  now  say ;  for 
a  strong  and  wise  man  can,  at  any  time,  prevent  or  destroy  the 
freedom  and  independence  of  a  weak  man,  of  which,  proof  is 
not  wanting.  That  every  man  has  certain  "inherent  rights" 
— one  of  which  is  named  liberty ;  another  absurdity,  for  the 
same  reason.  Another,  the  right  of  labor  ("  of  obtaining  prop- 
erty")— not  only  absurd,  but  very  horrible  :  another,  the  right 
of  enjoying  the  fruits  of  his  labor,  to  the  fullest  degree  compa- 
tible with  security  to  all  other  men  to  equally  enjoy  the  results 
of  their  labor — a  dangerous  and  impracticable  doctrine  :  another, 
the  right  of  private  judgment,  in  matters  of  religion  and  morali- 
ty, so  far  as  it  can  be  exercised  compatibly  with  the  preserva- 
tion to  all  of  this  and  all  other  rights ;  of  which,  very  little  is 
now  said. 

On  this  original  platform,  reasonable  or  not  reasonable — and 


256  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

I  do  not  want  any  one  to  doubt  a  moment  that  I  consider  it 
reasonable,  and  suppose  that  I  see  a  meaning  quite  reconcilable 
with  the  facts  considered  to  render  it  absurd,  only  I  wish  to  be 
respectful  to  those  who  cannot — on  this  platform,  they  impliedly 
promised,  if  they  should  succeed  in  maintaining  their  independ- 
ence of  the  power  tben  deemed  wickedly  oppressive,  to  reorganize 
society ;  and  they  called  upon  all  tbe  people  of  Virginia,  of  all 
classes,  of  all  degrees  of  muscular  strength  and  intellectual 
capacity  and  acquirements,  poor  and  ricb,  cavalier  and  base- 
blooded,  to  fraternize,  and  rise,  and  fight. 

And  they  did  it,  fraternizing  at  the  same  time  with  others 
making  similar  professions,  and  having  similar  purposes;  and 
they  all  fought  together,  and  succeeded,  all  equally,  in  obtaining 
— not  the  security  of  these  so-called  natural  rights,  but — com- 
munal independence  of  their  old  king. 

By  the  time  they  came  to  the  work  of  forming  the  instruments 
of  order  for  their  to-be-reorganized  society,  there  had  evidently 
occurred  a  violent  reaction  from  the  fervency  and  highly  stimu- 
lated judgment  under  which  the  Bill  of  Bights  had  been  drawn 
up,  among  the  influential  people  of  Virginia — for  the  constitution 
of  the  new  State  was  widely  inconsistent  with  the  principles 
of  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity,  previously  distinctly  pro- 
claimed, and  promised  to  be  used  as  its  supports  and  barriers. 

The  people,  imposed  upon  and  deprived  of  their  acknowledged 
rights,  be  it  observed,  were,  by  chance,  the  weakest,  most  igno- 
norant,  and  poorest — consequently,  the  least  likely  to  regard  the 
imposition,  and  the  least  able  to  resist  it. 

There  were  a  few  men,  among  those  whose  natural  rights  were 
respected,  who  did  not  like  this,  and  who  strongly  protested 
against  it.     Among  them,  Thomas  Jefferson  was  foremost. 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OP     VIRGINIA.  257 

To  the  new  Constitution  of  Virginia  he  strongly  objected, 
in  several  particulars,  not  only  on  the  score  of  consistency, 
but  of  justice  and  good  judgment.  For  instance,  that  the 
majority  of  the  tax-paying  and  fighting  men  of  the  State  were 
unrepresented  in  its  government;  and,  again,  that  things  had 
been  so  managed  that,  even  among  those  who  were  permitted  to 
vote,  there  were  nineteen  thousand  in  the  rich  plantation-counties 
of  the  east,  who  could  elect  more  members  of  the  legislature 
than  thirty  thousand  in  the  more  free  counties  of  the  west; 
accordingly,  the  State  would  be  virtually  ruled,  not  by  the 
people  through  their  elected  representatives,  but  by  an  oligarchy 
of  slave-holders.* 

A  large  majority  of  the  people  of  the  country  were  Dissent- 
ers from  the  Established  Church  of  the  English  Colony ;  yet, 
a  proposal  to  realize  the  declared  right  of  entire  religious 
freedom  was  met  by  an  opposition  which  occasioned,  as  Jef- 
ferson afterwards  declared,  the  most  severe  political  struggle  in 
which  he  was  ever  engaged.  The  most  that  could  be  obtained 
at  that  time,  after  all,  was  an  abrogation  of  the  laws 
which  denounced  punishment  for  maintaining  unorthodox 
opinions,   and   for   not  attending   the   Episcopal    church ;    and 

4 

acts  exempting  Dissenters  from  contributing  to  the  support 
of  the  Episcopal  clergy,  and  permitting  them  to  build  houses 
of  worship  of  their  own.  It  was  not  till  several  years  later 
that  any  one  else  than  the  Episcopal  clergymen  were  per- 
mitted to  solemnize  or  legalize  marriages,  except  by  the  pur- 
chase of  a  special  license.  The  Episcopal  church  still  con- 
tinued to  be  the  "  Established  Church,"  and  other  religious 
societies  were  merely  "  tolerated."! 
*  See  Jefferson's  Notes  on  Virginia,  pages  172, 173.  t  Howison,  ii.  192. 


258  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

THE    ARISTOCRACY    UNDERMINED. 

Next  to  religious  freedom,  the  most  important  change  de- 
manded by  the  avowed  principles  of  the  Eevolution,  was  an 
alteration  of  the  laws  with  regard  to  the  descent  of  property. 
The  laws  of  primogeniture  and  descent  in  tail,  were  felt  to 
be  unnatural,  discouraging  to  industry,  and,  by  their  effect  in 
aggravating  the  evils  to  society  of  the  excessive  possession 
and  control  of  land,  opposed  to  the  declared  right  of  all  to 
the  "  means  of  obtaining  wealth." 

Mr.  Howison  thus  clearly  and  truly  describes  these  laws 
and  their  influence : 

"  Nothing  can  convey  a  more  vivid  idea  of  the  strong  aristocratic 
feeling  pervading  Virginia,  than  her  course  as  to  this  scheme.  In  Eng- 
land, the  courts  had  set  their  faces  against  entails,  and  permitted  them 
to  be  docked  by  a  fine  and  recovery ;  but  the  law-makers  of  the  Old 
Dominion  held  all  such  innovations  in  high  contempt,  and,  by  a  statute 
enacted  in  1705,  forbade  their  use.  To  complete  their  work  in  1727, 
they  enacted  that  slaves  might  be  attached  to  lands,  and  might  be 
entailed  with  them,  subject  to  all  the  incidents  proper  to  the  system. 
Over  the  whole  Eastern  region,  fine  lands  were  held  by  families,  who 
guarded  their  privileges  with  more  than  English  jealousy. 

"  An  aristocracy  neither  of  talent,  nor  of  learning,  nor  of  moral  worth, 
but  of  landed  and  slave  interest,  was  (thus)  fostered.  The  members  of 
the  Council  of  State  were  always  chosen'from  this  class  ;  and  in  many 
respects  they  were  regarded  as  the  peerage  of  the  land. 

"  Where  lands  could  neither  be  sold  nor  mortgaged,  debts  must  often 
have  been  contracted  which  were  never  paid  ;  yet,  the  tenants  in  tail, 
lived  in  luxurious  ease,  to  which  others  were  strangers.  The  rich 
people  of  Virginia  were  then  richer  than  at  present,  and  the  poor  were 
poorer.  There  was  no  prospect  for  that  equal  distribution  of  property 
which  is  the  legitimate  reward  of  industry.  Coaches,  drawn  by  four 
horses,  rolled  from  the  doors  of  the  aristocracy ;  and  plate  of  gold  and 
silver,  in  the  utmost  profusion,  glittered  on  their  boards,  while  the  poor 
artisan  and  laborer  worked  for  the  necessaries  of  life,  without  any  hope 
of  ever  gaining  any  portion  of  the  property  guarded  by  entail."    • 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  259 

A  bill,  proposed  by  Jefferson,  providing  that  thereafter  all 
estates  in  tail  should  be  converted  into  fee  simple,  so  that 
the  owner  might  sell,  devise,  mortgage,  or  otherwise  dispose 
of  them  as  he  thought  proper,  was  at  length  carried,  after 
another  very  warm  and  protracted  struggle. 

Next,  the  law  of  primogeniture  was  attacked ;  a  strong 
defense  was  made  for  it  by  the  aristocratic  party ;  and 
when  they  found  it  must  be  repealed,  they  urged,  "in 
the  spirit  of  compromise,"  that  the  Jewish  rule  of  inhe- 
ritance should  be  substituted:  this  gives  the  eldest  son 
a  double  portion.  Mr.  Jefferson  answered  the  proposal, 
with  the  remark,  that  unless  the  eldest  son  required  a  double 
portion  of  food,  or  would  do  double  the  work  of  any  other, 
there  was  no  justice  in  giving  him  double  the  property. 

The  law  was  repealed.  Mr.  Featherstonaugh,  an  English 
Tory  who  visited  the  United  States  in  1836,  dates  from  this 
repeal  all  the  adversity  under  which  Virginia  has  since 
suffered.  The  seeds  of  much  of  the  adversity  which  he  wit- 
nessed were  produced  by  the  law:  cutting  it  away  did  not 
destroy  at  once  their  vitality ;  but  it  removed  a  pernicious 
shade  from  labor,  and,  but  for  this  timely  relief,  industry 
would  not,  I  am  convinced,  be  now  known  to  have  ever  existed 
at  all  in  Eastern  Virginia,  except  by  the  evidence  of  the 
desert  it  had  been  forced  to  create. 

The  argument  against  all  these  changes  was,  not  that  they 
were  not  demanded  by  justice  and  sound  principles  of  govern- 
ment, but,  that  it  was  not  safe  to  move  so  rapidly.  They 
were  old  institutions  under  which  Virginia  had  existed  for  a 
century  or  more.  They  were  unjust,  it  might,  in  some  sense, 
be    admitted,  and  their   effects,  it  could   not  be    denied,   were 


260  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

sometimes  rather  unhappy;  but  destroy  them,  replace  them 
with  laws  more  abstractly  just,  and — who  knew  that  there 
would  not  follow  worse  consequences  ?  It  was  fanatical  to 
push  forward  the  experiment  so  rapidly.  Besides,  people 
had  been  born  into  the  world  under  these  laws,  and  had 
taken  duties  and  responsibilities  upon  themselves,  in  the  ex- 
pectation that  they  would  be  sustained.  They  had  a  right 
to  demand,  it  was  urged,  therefore,  that  they  should  be 
sustained :  but  now,  when  the  right  principles  of  law  have 
been  enunciated,  leave  it  for  posterity  to  enact  them.  It 
will  then  be  every  man's  own  fault,  if  he  is  not  prepared  for 
them. 

Jefferson  well  understood  the  danger  of  this  course.  He 
urged  that  justice  should  be  done,  and  right  should  be  main- 
tained then  and  there,  and  at  all  hazards.  And  with  the  prophetic 
mind  of  true  statesmanship,  such  as  we  have  had  no  approach 
to  since,  he  uttered  in  1787  this  remarkable  warning  and 
prediction:  men  who  pretend  to  be  his  disciples,  should  not 
pass  it  lightly — 

"  Tlie  spirit  of  the  times  may  alter — will  alter.  Our  rulers  will  become 
corrupt,  our  people  careless.  It  can  never  be  too  often  repeated,  that  the 
time  for  fixing  every  essential  right  on  a  legal  basis  is  while  our  rulers 
are  honest,  and  ourselves  united.  From  the  conclusion  of  this  war,  we 
shall  be  going  down  hill.  It  will  not  then  be  necessary  to  resort  every 
moment  to  the  people  for  support.  They  will  be  forgotten,  therefore, 
and  their  rights  disregarded.  They  will  forget  themselves,  but  in  the  sole 
faculty  of  making  money,  aud  will  never  think  of  omitting  to  effect  a 
due  respect  for  their  rights.  The  shackles,  therefore,  which  shall  not 
be  knocked  off  at  the  conclusion  of  this  war,  will  remain  on  us  long — 
will  be  made  heavier  and  heavier,  till  our  rights  shall  revive,  or  expire  in 
a  convulsion."* 

*  Jefferson's  Notes  on  Virginia,  239. 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  261 

Impelled  by  these  convictions,  while  the  country  was  yet 
excited  with  all  the  turmoil  and  terror  of  invasion  and  war, 
while  a  price  was  yet  set  upon  his  head,  as  there  last  year 
was  on  the  heads  of  men  who  were  laboring  to  have  his 
principles  of  government  carried  out  in  our  young  states,  Mr. 
Jefferson,  besides  the  radical  improvements  already  noted, 
earnestly  and  confidently  desired  to  have  permanent  enact- 
ments introduced  into  the  laws  for  the  emancipation  of  t/ie 
slaves* 

EDUCATION  AND  EMANCIPATION  OF  THE  SLAVE  PEOPLE  REFUSED. 

The  scheme  of  emancipation  which  Jefferson  advocated  would 
have  provided  that  all  negroes  born  after  it  had  passed  should 
be  entitled  to  freedom ;  that  they  should  remain  with  their 
parents  until  of  a  certain  age,  "  then  be  brought  up,  at  the 
public  expense,  to  tillage,  arts,  or  sciences,  according  to  their 
geniuses,  till  the  females  should  be  eighteen,  the  males  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  when  they  should  be  colonized  to  such 
place  as  the  circumstances  of  the  time  should  render  most 
proper,  sending  them  out  with  implements  of  household  and 
the  handicraft  arts,  etc.,  etc. ;  that  they  should  then  be  declared 
to  be  a  free  and  independent  people ;  that  protection  and 
assistance  should  be  afforded  them  until  they  had  acquired 
strength;  and  that,  at  the  same  time,  an  equal  number  of 
white  people,  from  other  parts  of  the  ivorld,  should  he  sent  for, 
and  induced,  by  proper  encouragements,  to  migrate  into  Virginia."^ 
He  apologizes  at  length  for  proposing  to  expatriate  the  negroes, 
on  the  ground  of  the  impracticability  of  their  amalgamation 
or  comfortable  association  with  the  whites. 

*  Jefferson's  Notes  on  Virginia,  2C',i.  t  lb.,  204. 


262  OUR    SLAVE     STATES.       • 

To  the  great  grief  of  its  author,  this  project  was  not  carried: 
he  never  afterwards  ceased  to  bewail  the  neglect,  or  to  deplore 
the  consequences.  But  it  is  the  grand  characteristic  of  Jeffer- 
son, that  he  is  not  merely  a  philanthropist,  a  philosopher,  and 
a  patriot ;  he  is  also  a  strong  practical  statesman :  he  knows 
when  to  strike  and  when  to  hold.  With  the  boldness,  gene- 
rosity, and  clear  moral  vision,  reached  by  the  planters  in  the 
first  struggle  for  their  own  liberty,  the  day  for  justice  and 
Hberality  to  those  beneath  them  was  past.  Virginia,  during 
his  life-time,  was  in  no  condition  to  be  asked  to  make  sacri- 
fices of  property ;  and,  after  the  seven  years'  exhausting  war,  to 
secure  temporary  peace  and  harmony,  much  was  properly  post- 
poned; but  he  never  ceased  to  hope  that  the  spirit  of  the  age, 
"  the  advancement  of  the  human  mind,"  as  the  country  grew 
stronger  and  richer,  would  yet  be  able  to  grapple  with  the 
difficulty,  and  to  solve  it  in  accordance  with  republican  prin- 
ciples. Alas !  the  human  mind  advances  slowly  when  it  has 
to  drag  slavery. 

The  following  extracts  are  taken  from  the  correspondence 
of  Jefferson,  published  by  Congress,  1854 : 

"  TO   il.   WARVILLE. 

"  Paris,  February  12, 1788. 
"  Sik  : — I  am  very  sensible  of  the  honor  you  propose  to  me  of  becom- 
ing a  member  of  tbe  society  for  the  abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade.    Tou 
know  that  nobody  wishes  more  ardently  to  see  an  abolition,  not  only  of 
the  trade,  but  of  the  condition  of  Slavery." 


"to  benjamin  banneeek. 

"  Philadelphia,  August  30, 1791. 
"  Sir  : — I  thank  you  sincerely  for  your  letter  of  the  19th  instant,  and 
for  the  Almanac  it  contained.     Nobody  wishes  more  than  I  do  to  see 
such  proofs  as  you  exhibit,  that  nature  has  given  to  our  black  brethren 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  263 

talents  equal  to  those  of  the  other  colors  of  men,  and  that  appearance 
of  a  want  of  them  is  owing  mainly  to  the  degraded  condition  of  their 
existence,  both  in  Africa  and  America.  I  can  add,  with  truth,  that 
nobody  wishes  more  ardently  to  see  a  good  system  commenced  for 
raising  the  condition  both  of  their  body  and  mind  to  what  it  ought  to 
be,  as  fast  as  the  imbecility  of  their  present  existence  and  other  circum- 
stances, which  cannot  be  neglected,  will  permit." 

"  TO    ST.    GEORGE   TUCKER. 

"Monticello,  August  28,  1797. 
*  *  *  «as  to  the  mode  of  Emancipation,  I  am  satisfied  that  must 
be  a  matter  of  compromise  between  the  passions  and  prejudices  and  the 
real  difficulties,  which  will  each  have  their  weight  in  that  operation. 
But  if  something  is  not  done,  and  soon  done,  we  shall  be  the  murderers 
of  our  own  children.  The  sooner  we  put  some  plan  under  way,  the 
greater  hope  there  is  that  it  may  be  permitted  to  proceed  peaceably  to 
its  ultimate  effect." 


"  TO   MR.    BARROW. 

"  Monticello,  May  1,  1815.  , 
*.**««  Some  progress  is  sensibly  made  in  it.  yet  not  so  much  as  I 
hoped  and  expected.  But  it  will  yield  in  time  to  temperate  and  steady 
pursuit,  to  the  enlargement  of  the  human  mind,  and  its  advancement  in 
science.  We  are  not  in  a  world  ungoverned  by  the  laws  and  the  power 
of  a  superior  agent.  Our  efforts  are  in  His  hand,  and  directed  by  Him, 
and  He  will  give  them  their  effect  in  His  own  time.  Where  the 
disease  is  most  deeply  seated,  there  it  will  be  slowest  in  eradication. 
In  the  Northern  States,  it  was  merely  superficial  and  easily  corrected  ; 
in  the  Southern,  it  is  incorporated  with  the  whole  system,  and 
requires  time,  patience,  and  perseverance  in  the  curative  process.  That 
it  may  finally  be  effected  and  its  progress  hastened,  will  be  the  last  and 
fondest  prayer  of  Thomas  Jefferson." 


I  extract  the  following  passages  from  a  letter  to  Edward  Coles, 
first  published  in  the  National  Intelligencer,  dated 

"Monticello,  August  25,  1814. 
"  Dear  Sir  : — Your  favor  of  July  31  was  duly  received,  and  was  read 


264  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

with  peculiar  pleasure.  The  sentiments,  breathed  through  the  whole,  do 
honor  to  both  the  head  and  heart  of  the  writer.  Mine  on  the  subject 
of  the  Slavery  of  negroes  have  long  since  been  in  the  possession  of  the 
public,  and  time  has  only  served  to  give  them  stronger  root. 

"  The  love  of  justice  and  the  love  of  country  plead  equally  the  cause 
of  these  people,  and  it  is  a  mortal  reproach  to  us  that  they  should  have 
pleaded  it  so  long  in  vain,  and  should  have  produced  not  a  single  effort 
— nay,  I  fear,  not  much  serious  willingness— to  relieve  them  and  our- 
selves from  our  present  condition  of  moral  and  political  reprobation. 
From  those  of  the  former  generation  who  were  in  the  fullness  of  age 
when  I  came  into  public  life — which  was  while  our  controversy  with 
England  was  on  paper  only — I  soon  saw  that  nothing  was  to  be  hoped. 
Nursed  and  educated  in  the  daily  habit  of  seeing  the  degraded  condition, 
both  bodily  and  mental,  of  those  unfortunate  beings,  not  reflecting  that 
that  degradation  was  very  much  the  work  of  themselves  and  their 
fathers,  few  minds  had  yet  doubted  but  that  they  were  as  legitimate 
subjects  of  property  as  their  horses  or  cattle.  The  quiet  and  mono- 
tonous course  of  colonial  life  had  been  disturbed  by  no  alarm  and  little 
reflection  on  the  value  of  liberty;  and  when 'alarm  was  taken  at  an 
enterprise  on  their  own,  it  was  not  easy  to  carry  them  the  whole  length 
of  the  principles  which  they  invoked  for  themselves.  In  the  first  or 
second  session  of  the  Legislature  after  I  became  a  member,  I  drew  to 
this  subject  the  attention  of  Col.  Bland,  one  of  the  oldest,  ablest,  and 
most  respected  members,  and  he  undertook  to  move  for  certain  moderate 
extensions  of  the  protection  of  the  laws  to  these  people.  I  seconded 
his  motion,  and,  as  a  younger  member,  was  more  spared  in  the  debate ; 
but  he  was  denounced  as  an  enemy  to  his  country,  and  was  treated  with 
the  greatest  indecorum. 

"  From  an  early  stage  of  our  Revolution,  other  and  more  distant 
duties  were  assigned  me,  so  that  from  that  time  till  my  return  from 
Europe  in  1789,  and,  I  may  say,  till  I  returned  to  reside  at  home  in 
1809,  I  had  little  opportunity  of  knowing  the  progress  of  public 
sentiment  here  on  this  subject.  I  had  always  hoped  that  the  younger 
generation,  receiving  their  early  impressions  after  the  flame  of  liberty 
had  been  kindled  in  every  breast,  and  had  become,  as  it  were,  the  vital 
spirit  of  every  American,  that  the  generous  temperament  of  youth, 
analogous  to  the  motion  of  their  blood,  and  above  the  suggestions  of 
avarice,  would  have  sympathized  with  oppression  wherever  found,  and 
proved  their  love  of  liberty  beyond  their  own  share  of  it.     But  my 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF    VIRGINIA.  265 

intercourse  with  them  since  my  return  has  not  been  sufficient  to 
ascertain  that  they  had  made  toward  this  point  the  progress  I  had 
hoped.  Your  solitary  but  welcome  voice  is  the  first  which  has  brought 
this  sound  to  my  ear,  and  I  have  considered  the  general  silence  which 
prevails  on  this  subject  as  indicating  an  apathy  unfavorable  to  our 
hopes.  Yet  the  hour  of  emancipation  is  advancing  in  the  march 
of  time.  It  will  come ;  and,  whether  brought  on  by  the  generous 
energy  of  our  own  minds,  or  by  the  bloody  process  of  St.  Domingo, 
excited  and  conducted  by  the  power  of  our  present  enemy,  if  once 
stationed  permanently  within  our  country,  offering  asylum  and  arms  to 
the  oppressed,  is  a  leaf  of  our  own  history,  and  not  yet  turned  over." 

Although,  the  planters  were  not  then  willing  to  surrender  the 
property  they  had  in  slaves,  and  desired  to  postpone  emancipa- 
tion until  they  could  better  afford  to  do  so,  it  was  universally 
known,  felt,  and  acknowledged,  that  Slavery  had  been,  and  still 
continued  to  be,  a  great  injury  to  the  country,  pernicious  to 
morals,  destructive  to  industry,  and  a  dead  weight  upon  enter- 
prise. In  the  Convention  of  1774,  it  was  unanimously  resolved, 
that: 

"  The  abolition  of  domestic  slavery  is  the  greatest  object  of  desire 
in  those  colonies  where  it  was  unhappily  introduced  in  their  infant  state. 
But,  previous  to  the  enfranchisement  of  the  slaves  we  have,  it  is  necessary 
to  exclude  all  further  importations  from  Africa.  Yet  our  repeated 
attempts  to  effect  this  by  prohibitions,  and  by  imposing  duties  whicli 
might  amount  to  a  prohibition,  have  been  hitherto  defeated  by  his 
Majesty's  negative  ;  thus  preferring  the  immediate  advantages  of  a  few 
African  corsairs  to  the  lasting  interests  of  the  American  States,  and  to 
the  rights  of  human  nature,  deeply  wounded  by  this  infamous  practice. 
Nay,  the  single  interposition  of  an  interested  individual  against  a  law, 
was  scarcely  ever  known  to  fail  of  success,  though  in  the  opposite  scale 
were  placed  the  interests  of  a  whole  country.  That  this  is  so  shameful 
an  abuse  of  a  power  trusted  with  his  Majesty  for  other  purposes,  as,  if 
not  reformed,  would  call  for  some  legal  restrictions."* 


*  American  Archives,  4th  series,  i.,  636. 
12 


266  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

At  a  general  meeting  of  the  freeholders  of  Prince  George's 
county,  in  1775,  it  was  unanimously  resolved:  "That  the 
African  trade  is  injurious  to  this  colony,  obstructs  the  popula- 
tion of  it  by  freemen,  prevents  manufacturers  and  other  useful 
emigrants  from  settling  among  us,  and  occasions  an  increase  of 
the  balance  of  trade  against  this  colony."* 

In  Princess  Ann,  Fairfax,  {Geo.  Washington  presiding),  Cul- 
pepper, ISTansemond,  Caroline,  Hanover,  and  Surrey  counties, 
resolutions  of  similar  import  were  also  passed  at  formal  meet- 
ings of  the  freeholders,  and  generally  by  unanimous  vote. 
Subsequently,  in  the  discussion  of  the  power  of  the  general 
government  with  regard  to  Slavery,  Mr.  Mason  said,  in  the 
Virginia  Legislature : 

"  The  present  question  concerns  not  the  importing  States  alone,  but 
the  whole  Union.  The  evil  of  having  slaves  was  experienced  during 
the  late  war.  Had  slaves  been  treated  as  they  might  have  been  by  the 
enemy,  they  would  have  proved  dangerous  instruments  in  their  hands. 
But  their  folly  dealt  by  the  slaves  as  it  did  by  the  Tories.  Slavery 
discourages  arts  and  manufactures.  The  poor  despise  labor  when  per- 
formed by  slaves.  They  prevent  the  immigration  of  whites,  who  really 
enrich  and  strengthen  a  country.  They  produce  the  most  pernicious 
effects  on  manners.  Every  master  of  slaves  is  born  a  petty  tyrant. 
They  bring  the  judgment  of  heaven  on  a  country.  By  an  inevitable 
chain  of  causes  and  effects  Providence  punishes  national  sins  by  national 
alamities.  He  lamented  that  some  of  our  eastern  brethren,  from  a  lust 
of  gain,  have  embarked  in  this  nefarious  traffic.  As  to  the  State  being 
in  the  possession  of  the  right  to  import,  that  was  the  case  with  many 
other  rights  now  to  be  given  up.  He  held  it  essential,  in  every  point 
of  view,  that  the  General  Government  should  have  power  to  prevent  the 
increase  of  slavery." 

The  importation  of  slaves  from  the  West  Indies  and  Africa 
was  forbidden :  the  emancipation  of  those  already  living  in  the 

*  American  Archives,  4th  serieB,  i.,  494. 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  267 

land  was  merely  postponed,   as  it  was  distinctly  understood, 
until  a  more  convenient  season. 

EDUCATION    AND   ELEVATION  ALSO   EEFUSED    TO    THE   POOR  WHITES. 

Twenty-five  acres  of  land,  with  such  a  cabin  and  other  im- 
provements upon  it  as  "  poor  white  people  "  are  now  generally 
content  with  in  Virginia,  could  not  have  been,  at  the  time  of  the 
Eevolution,  worth,  on  an  average,  more  than  one  hundred 
dollars.  The  property  of  a  majority  of  the  able-bodied,  tax 
paying  men  in  the  State,  was  then  less  than  this.* 

Mr.  Jefferson  says,  the  poorer  class  are  accustomed  to  live 
almost  entirely  on  animal  food,  "  although  a  free  use  of  vege- 
tables is  indispensable  to  their  health  and  comfort."  It  is  pro- 
bable that  but  few  of  them  were  habituated  to  regular  labor,  and 
that  a  large  part  still  lived  by  hunting,  and  were  but  slightly 
elevated,  if  any  at  all,  above  the  savages  they  had-  displaced. 

The  father  of  American  Democracy,  believing  in  his  heart 
that  these  men  were  unjustly  denied  the  right  of  taking  part  in 
the  election  of  their  rulers,  yet  acknowledging  the  danger  of 
intrusting  power  in  the  hands  of  men  so  grossly  ignorant,  was 
anxious  that  measures  should  be  taken,  simultaneously  with 
those  he  advocated  for  the  removal  of  the  slave-laborers,  to 
elevate  their  children,  and,  at  all  events,  to  draw  out  from  them 
a  fully  educated  class  of  free  citizens — men  who  should  under- 
stand and  sympathize  with  their  wants,  yet  be  fully  competent 
for  the  highest  offices  of  State.  He  was  too  true  to  himself, 
however,  to  advocate  any  marked  distinctions  of  classes  in  the 
laws,  such  as  characterize  the  present  school-laws  of  Virginia. 

*  Jefferson's  Notes,  comp.  pp.  171,  172,  225. 


26S  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

He  proposed  that  the  whole  State  should,  as  soon  as 
practicable,  be  divided  into  districts,  each,  at  most,  of  six 
miles  square,  in  every  one  of  which  a  school-house,  and 
competent  teacher  should  be  provided:  that  all  residents  in 
the  district  should  be  entitled  to  send  their  children  to  this 
school  for  three  years,  without  payment,  and  by  payment  of  a 
fixed  moderate  tuition  fee,  as  much  longer  as  they  pleased: 
That  out  of  the  scholars  whose  parents  were  unable  to  give  their 
children  more  complete  education,  the  boy  showing  most  genius, 
in  each  school  district,  should  be  chosen  annually,  to  be  ad- 
vanced at  the  public  expense,  to  a  classical  and  mathematical, 
or  High  school :  that  from  among  the  High  school  scholars, 
a  certain  number  should  be  annually  selected  for  promotion 
to  a  superior  institution,  where  they  should  remain  six  years. 
This  institution  was  intended  to  answer  the  purpose  of  a  normal 
college,  in  supplying  competent  teachers  for  the  common  schools  : 
but  also  from  among  its  graduates,  one-half  of  the  most  talented 
were  to  be  offered  three  years'  additional  support  by  the  State, 
while  they  pursued  the  study  of  arts  and  sciences  at  the  Univer- 
sity. This  University — the  present  University  of  Virginia,  at 
Charlottesville — is  the  only  part  of  this  scheme  which  has  yet 
been  realized.  It  is  a  school  for  the  rich — for  the  sons  of 
slave-holders  almost  exclusively. 

"  The  general  objects  of  this  law,"  said  Mr.  Jefferson,  "  are  to 
provide  an  education  adapted  to  the  years,  to  the  capacity,  and 
the  condition  of  every  one,  and  directed  to  their  freedom  and 
happiness."  "  Of  the  views  of  this  law,  none  is  more  important, 
none  more  legitimate  than  that  of  rendering  the  people  the  safe, 
as  they  are  the  ultimate,  guardians  of  their  own  liberty.  The 
people  themselves  are  the  only  safe  depositories  of  government. 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  269 

And  to  render  them  safe,  their  minds  must  be  improved  to  a 
certain  degree.  This,  indeed,  is  not  all  that  is  necessary, 
though  it  be  essentially  necessary." 

The  proposal  met  with  no  greater  favor  than  that  for  the  edu- 
cation and  gradual  emancipation  of  the  slaves.  However  earnest 
Mr.  Jefferson  was,  nothing  can  be  more  evident  than  that,  even 
then,  there  was  no  sincere  purpose  on  the  part  of  the  planters 
— that  is,  the  rich  and  powerful — to  constitute  a  truly  Demo- 
cratic government,  or  even  to  prepare  the  ground  for  it.  Yet 
the  results  of  what  he  was  able  to  accomplish  by  the  power  of 
his  eloquence,  over  their  egotism  and  illiberality,  are  such  as 
to  encourage  us  never  to  fear,  when  we  have  an  opportunity  to 
legislate  in  advance  of  our  age.  The  people  of  Virginia  have 
not,  to  this  day,  as  a  body,  approached  to  Jefferson's  sound, 
practical  and  Christian  views  of  governmental  and  social  science. 
Yet,  to  his  limited  success  in  embodying  those  views  in  their 
Constitution  and  laws,  they  are  indebted  for  most  of  their 
present  limited  prosperity. 

THE    SOCIAL    RESULTS    OP    THE    REVOLUTION. 

Before  the  Kevolution,  there  were,  in  Virginia,  beside  the 
temporary  servile  class,  four  distinct  legal  and  social  orders  of 
the  people :  first,  the  aristocracy  proper ;  second,  the  common  free 
men ;  third,  the  poor  whites,  or  non-freeholders,  who  had  no  vote- 
on  the  matters  of  the  Commonwealth ;  fourth,  the  slaves  proper. 
The  history  of  Virginia,  since  the  Kevolution,  is  a  record  of  the 
industrial  advantages  resulting  from  the  downfall  of  the  old 
aristocracy  and  the  formation  of  a  younger — and,  therefore,  more 
vigorous, — broader — and,  therefore,  freer  and  less  sharply  de- 
fined— modern  aristocracy.     By  comparing  the  industrial  pro- 


270  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

gress  of  the  state  with  that  of  others,  more  democratically- 
organized  and  managed,  and  entirely  or  nearly  free  from  Slavery 
proper,  an  index  is  also  given  us  of  the  injury  the  Common- 
wealth has  experienced  from  Slavery,  and  from  morbid  pro- 
slavery  conservatism. 

Neither  the  condition  nor  the  character  of  the  poor 
people  of  the  east  was,  on  the  whole,  much  improved  by 
the  Eevolution.  The  class  of  well-to-do  planters,  the  wealthier 
yeomen  of  the  country,  were  chiefly  elevated  and  benefited  by 
it.*  Its  effect  on  the  old  aristocracy  was  not  directly  ruinous ; 
it  merely  exposed  its  essential  weakness,  and  revealed  the  heavy 
expense  to  the  Commonwealth  by  which  it  had  hitherto  been  sus- 
tained. A  generation  passed  away,  before  payment  of  the  deht  it 
had  been  running  up  for  nearly  two  centuries  was  demanded,  and 
its  pride  distinctly  brought  low. 

The  interval  needs  no  particular  account.  The  system  of 
husbandry — so  to  dignify  the  pernicious  method  of  extract- 
ing the  wealth  of  the  land,  which  prevailed — had  neces- 
sarily, already,  been  somewhat  modified.  The  great  size 
of  the  plantations  was  a  principal  hindrance  to  any  ex- 
tended improvement.  The  cultivated  land  was  divided  into 
"in-fields"  and  "out-fields;"  the  former,  being  those  nearest 
the  central  establishment,  received  all  the  manure  that  was 
made,  and  were  planted  with  tobacco ;  the  out-fields,  were  those 
at  such  a  distance  that  manure  could  not  be  afforded  to  be 
carried  to   them.     If  not  thought  to  be  rich  enough,  without 


*  In  the  first  Bill  for  organizing  a  militia,  drawn  up  by  Patrick  Henry,  the 
people  of  the  State  were  designated,  as  they  would  be  in  England,  "  gentlemen 
and  yeomen,"  the  distinction  of  class  being,  even  at  such  a  time,  and  by  such 
a  man,  distinctly  recognized. 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  271 

the  aid  of  manure,  to  produce  a  single  crop  of  tobacco  when  first 
cleared  up  (after  having  been  thrown  out  for  many  years),  they 
were  planted  with  maize,  several  years  in  succession,  and,  after- 
wards, cropped  with  maize  and  wheat  alternately;  or,  if  the 
wheat  crop  fell  to  less  than  three  (3 !)  bushels  an  acre,  with 
maize  alone.  Occasionally  a  "  rest,"  of  a  year  or  two,  would  be 
permitted,  during  which  the  spontaneous  growth  of  weeds  was 
closely  pastured.  This  process  was  continued  as  long  as  the 
land  would  produce  five  bushels  of  maize  to  the  acre ;  when 
the  crop  fell  below  that,  the  land  would  be  left  alone  twenty 
or  thirty  years  (the  length  of  time  depending  on  the  number  of 
negroes  the  planter  owned  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  his  plan- 
tation), when  it  would  be  again  subjected  to  the  same  course.* 

It  was  estimated  that  the  crops  of  the  whole  State,  just  pre- 
vious to  the  Eevolution,  were  worth  respectively — per  annum, 
communihus  annis — as  follows  : 


Tobacco,      ....  $1,650,000 
Wheat,      ...        -  666,666 

Maize, 200,000 


Pork, $40,000 

Brandy  and  Whisky,  -        -  6,666 

Horses,    -----      6,666 


All  other  agricultural  productions, 14,667 


The  tobacco-crop  being  still,  if  we  except  the  small  items  of 
horses  and  distilled  spirits,  more  than  twice  the  value  of  all  other 
agricultural  productions,  and  ten  times  the  value  of  all  the  ship- 
ping, lumber,  naval  stores,  peltry,  and  other  productions  of  the 
forest,  fisheries,  mines,  and  manufactures. 

But  its  production  was  falling  off,  and  Mr.  Jefferson,  com- 
menting on  the  above  statement,  rejoices  in  the  hope  that  it  will 
soon  be  necessarily  given  up  altogether.  It  is  important  to 
remember  this ;  and  I  shall  again  refer  to  it — that  the  culture 

*  See  Ruffin's  Essay  on  Calcareous  Manures. 


272  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

of  tobacco  was  already  so  little  profitable  that  the  amount  grown 
was  rapidly  declining — and,  that  the  philosophical  statesman, 
who  was  the  author  of  the  bills  tor  abrogating  entails  and  primo- 
geniture, saw,  in  the  prospect  of  its  entire  discontinuance, 
subject  for  congratulation,  rather  than  regret. 

I  can  find  no  distinct  statements  or  estimates,  with  regard 
to  the  material  interests  of  Virginia,  for  a  long  time  after 
the  Kevolution.  It  is  certain  that,  owing  to  the  causes  I 
have  mentioned,  the  culture  of  tobacco  became  necessarily  less 
and  less,  on  the  Eastern  Virginia  plantations,  and  the  labor 
owned  upon  them  was  necessarily  devoted  increasingly  to  the 
culture  of  wheat  and  maize.  The  income  from  the  land  and 
labor  became  constantly  smaller ;  not  because  of  the  substitution 
of  grain  for  tobacco,  but  because  of  the  gradual  but  constant 
deterioration  of  the  soil,  which  that  substitution  marked. 

I  use  the  awkward  term,  "  income  from  property  in  land 
and  labor,"  instead  of  the  simple  one,  "profits  of  agricul- 
ture," because  there  never  had  yet  been  any  legitimate  profit 
of  agriculture,  in  Virginia.  From  the  beginning  the  plant- 
ing aristocracy  had  merely  been  living  on  its  capital ;  the 
whole  labor  of  the  country  had  been,  and  still,  at  the  Eevo- 
lution, continued  to  be  engaged  in  nothing  else  but  transmuting 
the  soil  of  the  country  into  tobacco — which  was  sent  to 
England  to  purchase  luxuries  for  its  masters — and  into 
bread  for  the  bare  support  of  its  inhabitants,  without  making 
any  return.  Some  manure,  it  is  true,  was  occasionally  de- 
posited; but  it  was  not,  probably,  one  per  cent,  of  the  value 
of  the  capital  of  fertility  which  was  washed  into  the  sea 
between  the  periods  at  which  it  was  applied.  Entail,  primo- 
geniture, and  Slavery,  had^  been  sufficient  to  hide  the  increas- 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  273 

ing  poverty  of  the  country  under  the  ostentatious  hospitality 
and  pompous  airs  of  the  aristocracy.  This  extravagance,  how- 
ever, could  not,  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances,  have 
lasted  much  longer.  If  the  Kevolution  had  not  occurred, 
if  these  laws  had  not  been  changed,  it  is  probable  that  a  very 
much  longer  period  would  not  have  elapsed,  before  their  repeal 
would  have  been  desired  by  the  aristocracy  itself,  as  was  the 
"Encumbered  Estates  Act"  in  Ireland,  by  its  fine-blooded 
gentlemen,  of  Old  Virginia  habits,  a  few  years  since.  Such 
pitiable  calamity  as  Ireland  suffered  in  the  famine,  is,  perhaps, 
not  possible  in  a  country  like  Virginia ;  but,  if  the  old  system 
had  been  pursued  on  a  short  time  longer,  there  would  have 
been  nothing  left  for  the  people  but  to  emigrate  in  a  body, 
or  be  reduced  to  a  common  level  of  extreme  destitution. 

But  the  revolutionary  penance  could  only  mitigate,  not 
arrest,  punitive  justice,  and,  at  length — at  the  close  of 
the  second  war  with  England,  which  has  occasioned  a  pro- 
tracted dullness  in  the  demand  for  tobacco — the  hand  of 
inevitable  Nemesis  is  manifest.  Many  of  the  old  Colonial 
proprietors  are  now  dead,  the  plantations  are  generally  divided 
according  to  the  new  laws.  The  young  men,  brought  up 
among  the  negroes — "nursed,  educated,  and  daily  exercised 
in  tyranny,"  as  Mr.  Jefferson  described  them  to  be — with 
luxurious  and  vicious  propensities,  and  irrestrainable  passions, 
are  not  able  to  meet  the  demands  of  their  habits,  much  less 
to  pay  the  interest  of  the  long  accumulating  debts  of  their 
families.  The  law  no  longer  protects  them  from  the  honest 
claims  of  the  despised  merchants.  Lands  and  negroes  have 
been  mortgaged.     The  sale  of  negroes,  from  time  to  time,  to 

traders,    who    are    now   beginning   to    ship   them    off  in   con- 
12* 


274  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

siderable  number,  to  the  cotton  plantations  of  the  Southern 
Slave  States,  satisfies  the  most  pressing  demands  for  a  few 
years,  but  only  makes  the  ultimate  catastrophe  more  accumu- 
lative and  overwhelming.  The  end  of  the  rope  is  finally 
reached,  and  the  worn  out  and  used  up  old  plantations  are 
going  a  begging  for  purchasers,  like  foundered  horses,  at  any 
price  which  shall  give  bare  freedom  to  the  poor  young  cava- 
liers. The  iniquity  of  aristocracy  is  visited  upon  the  children 
and  upon  the  children's  children,  unto  the  third  and  fourth 
generations,  and,  in  the  world's  open  market,  the  exact  value  of 
grandfathers  is  at  length  ascertained. 

The  story  is  thus  told  by  a  Virginian  in  the  Southern 
Planter : 

"  Every  farm  was  greatly  impoverished — almost  every  estate  was 
seriously  impaired — and  some  were  involved  in  debt  to  nearly  their 
value.  Most  of  the  proprietors  had  died,  leaving  families  in  reduced 
circumstances,  and  in  some  cases  in  great  straits.  No  farm,  whether  of 
a  rich  or  a  poor  proprietor,  had  escaped  great  exhaustion,  and  no  pro- 
perty great  dilapidation,  unless  because  the  proprietor  had  at  first  been 
too  poor  to  join  in  the  former  expensive  habits  of  his  wealthier 
neighbors. 

*  *  *  u  There  was  nothing  left  to  waste,  but  time  and  labor  ; 
and  these  continued  to  be  wasted  in  the  now  fruitless  efforts  to 
cultivate  to  profit,  or  to  replace  the  fertility  of  soil  which  had  been 
destroyed.  Luxury  and  expense  had  been  greatly  lessened.  But 
on  that  account  "the  universal  prostration  was  even  the  more  appa- 
rent.  Many  mansions  were  falling  into  decay.  Few  received  any 
but  trivial  and  indispensable  repairs.  No  new  mansion  was  erect- 
ed, and  rarely  any  other  farm-building  of  value.  There  was  still 
generally  prevailing  idleness  among  proprietors  ;  and  also  an  aban- 
donment of  hope,  which  made  every  one  desirous  to  sell  his  land  and 
move  to  the  fertile  and  far  West,  and  a  general  emigration  and 
dispersion  was  only  prevented  by  the  impossibility  of  finding  pur- 
chasers for  the  lands,  even  at  half  the  then  low  estimate  of  market 
prices." 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  275 

And  thus  by  Mr.  Palfrey: 

"  By-and-by  the  father  dies,  and  the  land  and  the  hundred  negroes, 
more  or  less,  are  divided  equally  among  the  children.  The  sons  cannot 
live — at  all  events  as  they  have  been  used  to  living — on  a  piece  of  ex- 
hausted tobacco-lands  with  a  dozen  or  two  of  hands  to  till  it.  The  pro- 
fessions are  full ;  the  trades  too  vulgar  for  them  ;  they  have  no  way  to 
get  a  subsistence.  They  sell  off  the  human-stock,  and  live  off  the  pro- 
ceeds, as  long  as  they  last ;  and  then  become  borrowing  loafers  about, 
the  Court-House  tavern,  or  take  their  departure  for  parts  unknown. 
Or  they  take  to  the  Capitol,  their  only  capital,  long  so  well  accredited 
there,  of  '  belonging  to  one  of  the  first  families  in  Virginia,'  and  get 
some  small  clerkship  in  one  of  the  public  offices, ." 

THE    EFFECT   OF   DEMOCRACY. 

The  Democratic  system,  so  far  as  it  was  established  by  the 
Revolution,  was  limited  in  its  scope  to  what  had  been  previously 
the  middle  white  class,  and  the  aristocracy.  Its  first  effect  upon 
the  latter  I  have  shown  to  have  been  disastrous,  but  upon  the 
great  mass  its  operation  must  have  been  elevating  and  encourag- 
ing. Even  during  this  very  same  period  of  aristocratic  disper- 
sion, now  known  as  the  dark  days  of  Virginia,  because  many 
flashing  lights  of  her  old  gentry  were  then  extinguished,  I  believe 
the  condition  of  the  major  part  of  the  people  (leaving  out  of 
view,  for  the  present,  the  slaves,  and  the  politically  debased 
whites),  was  steadily  improving.  There  were  more  rising  than 
falling  men. 

Notwithstanding  a  constant  emigration  of  the  decayed  fami- 
lies, and  of  the  more  enterprising  of  the  poor,  the  population 
steadily  augmented,  though  not  so  rapidly  as  in  the  adjoining 
more  democratic  States.*     If  the  apparent  wealth  of  the  country 

*  1790  to  1810,  population  to  eq.  mile  in  Virginia  increased  from  10-68  to  13-92 
"  "      '     "  "  New  York  "  7-56  to  21-31 

"  "  "  "  Pennsylvania        "  9-28  to  17-30 


276  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

was  not  increasing,  the  foundation  of  a  greater  material  pros- 
perity was  being  laid,  in  the  increase  of  the  number  of  small, 
but  intelligent  proprietors,  and  in  the  constantly  growing  ne- 
cessity to  abandon  tobacco,  and  substitute  grains,  or  varied 
crops,  as  the  staple  productions  of  the  country.  The  very  cir- 
cumstance that  reduced  the  old  pseudo-wealthy  proprietors,  was 
favorable  to  this  change,  and  to  the  application  of  intelligence  to 
a  more  profitable  disposal  of  the  remaining  elements  of  wealth 
in  the  land. 

While  multitudes  abandoned  their  ancestral  acres  in  despair, 
or  were  driven  from  them  by  the  recoil  of  their  fathers'  incon- 
siderate expenditures,  they  were  taken  possession  of  by  "  new 
men,"  endowed  with  more  hopefulness  and  energy,  if  not  more 
intelligence  than  the  old.  Movement,  though  it  be  apparently 
downward,  is  evidence  of  life,  and  is  stimulating  to  the  mind. 
Every  man  who  thought  about  it,  saw  that  either  tobacco  must 
be  given  up,  or  its  method  of  culture  essentially  modified,  or 
that  his  land  must  continue  to  decrease  in  productive  value. 
With  the  new  proprietors  this  was  a  matter  of  more  consequence 
than  it  had  formerly  been,  because  a  larger  proportion  of  their 
capital  was  now  absorbed  in  the  land  they  owned,  proportion- 
ately to  that  in  slaves.  In  an  address  of  Mr.  Madison,  after- 
wards President  of  the  Confederacy,  before  an  Agricultural 
Society  in  Albemarle  County,  in  1819,  the  change  then  progress- 
ing in  the  economy  of  Virginia  is  thus  alluded  to  : 

"  Whilst  there  was  an  abundance  of  fresh  and  fertile  soil,  it  was  the 
interest  of  the  cultivator  to  spread  his  labor  over  as  great  a  surface  as 
possible.  Land  being  cheap,  and  labor  dear,  and  the  land  cooperating 
powerfully  with  the  labor,  it  was  profitable  to  draw  as  much  as  possible 
from  the  land.  Labor  is  now  comparatively  cheaper,  and  land  dearer. 
It  might  be  profitable,  therefore,  now,  to  contract  the  surface  over  which 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  277 

labor  is  spread,  even  if  the  soil  retained  its  freshness  and  fertility.  But 
this  is  not  the  case.  Much  of  the  fertile  soils  are  exhausted,  and  unfer- 
tile soils  are  brought  into  cultivation  ;  and  both  cooperating  less  with 
labor  in  producing  the  crop,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  how  far  labor 
can  be  profitably  exerted  on  them  :  whether  it  ought  not  to  be  applied 
towards  making  them  fertile,  rather  than  in  further  impoverishing  them  ; 
or  whether  it  might  not  be  more  profitably  applied  to  mechanical  ope- 
rations, or  domestic  manufactures." 

Among  men  of  capital,  intelligence,  and  social  habits* — for, 
without  the  stimulus  of  conversation  or  reading,  improvements 
are  accepted  slowly — certain  systematic  methods  of  sustaining 
and  improving  landed  estate  began  to  prevail,  immediately  after 
the  second  war.  Tobacco  was  given  up,  or  cultivated  only  in  its 
proper  turn  of  a  rotation ;  artificial  grasses  were  introduced,  and, 
with  the  aid  of  gypsum,  clover  was  made  to  grow  upon  the  ex- 
hausted lands,  and  made  use  of  as  a  green  manure,  to  resuscitate 
them ;  ambulatory  pens,  shifted  yearly  from  field  to  field,  came 
into  use  upon  large  farms,  instead  of  the  stationary  central  stock- 
yards, thus  saving  the  great  labor  of  hauling  fodder  and  manure 
between  them  and  distant  fields,  and  doing  away  with  the  "  in 
and  out-field"  system.  Cattle  and  horses  were  fed  a  much 
longer  period  of  the  year  than  formerly,  and  by  some  they  were 
excluded  from  the  tillage  lands  altogether,  the  growth  of  weeds 
and  grasses  having  been  found  to  be  of  more  value  to  plow  in 
as  manure,  than  to  be  pastured. 

Among  American  patriots  of  this  period  of  our  history,  should 
always  be  classed  John  Taylor,  of  Caroline  county,  Virginia,  the 
author  of  "  Arator,"  and  John  S.  Skinner,  who,  in  1819,  com- 
menced at  Baltimore,  in  Maryland,  the  publication  of  the  first 
special  agricultural  journal  in  America.  Other  men,  many  of 
whose  names  are  enrolled  among  those  of  our  national  states- 


278  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

men,  were  then  united  'with  them,  in  strenuous  and  concerted 
exertion,  to  give  a  better  direction  to  the  labor  and  agricultural 
capital  of  those  States. 

The  convalescence  of  Virginia  agriculture,  however,  if  conva- 
lescent it  may  be  considered  ever  to  have  been,  should  more  espe- 
cially be  dated  from  the  introduction  of  lime,  as  an  application, 
in  connection  with  better  tillage,  judicious  rotations,  and  more 
frequent  applications  of  dung  and  green  crops,  for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  land.  And  for  this,  Virginia  is  chiefly  indebted 
to  the  study,  experiments,  preaching,  and  publications  of  Edmund 
Euffin.  Mr.  Kuffin  was,  for  many  years,  .the  editor  of  the 
Virginia  Farmers'  Register,  but  is  best  known  as  the  author 
of  "  A  Treatise  on  Calcareous  Manures,"  than  which  no  work 
on  a  similar  subject  has  ever  been  published  in  Europe  or 
America  based  on  more  scientifically  careful  investigation,  and 
trusty,  personal  experience,  or  of  equal  practical  value  to 
those  for  whose  benefit  it  was  designed. 

But,  cotemporaneously  with  the  invigoration  of  the  planting 
class,  the  depression  of  the  tobacco  market,  and  the  introduction 
of  these  improvements  in  agriculture  which  promised  so  much 
for  the  future  of  the  State,  there  entered  a  still  more  potent 
element  into  the  direction  of  her  destiny.  This  was  occasioned 
by  the  increasing  profit  and  extending  culture  of  cotton  in 
the  more  Southern  States,  which  gave  rise  to  a  demand  for 
additional  labor,  increased  the  value  of  slaves,  and,  the  African 
Slave  Trade  having  been  declared  piracy,  led  to  a  great  exten- 
sion of  the  internal  Slave  Trade. 

The  value  of  the  cotton  exported  from  the  United  States 
was: 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  279 

In  1194 $500,000 

1800 .  5,000,000 

1810,              .' 15,000,000 

1820, 22,000,000 

1830,              30,000,000 

1840, 64,000,000 

1850,              72,000,000 

Closely  corresponding  to  the  increase  in  the  exportation 
of  cotton,  was  the  growth  of  the  demand  for  labor;  and  as, 
in  any  slave-holding  community,  experience  shows  no  other 
labor  can  be  extensively  made  use  of  but  that  of  slaves,  the 
value  of  slaves  for  sale  has  steadily  advanced  in  Virginia,  with 
the  extension  of  cotton  fields  over  the  lands  conquered  or  pur- 
chased for  that  purpose  of  the  Indians  in  Alabama  and  Florida ; 
of  France,  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi ;  and  of  Mexico,  in 
Texas* 

The  effect  of  this  demand  for  slaves  was  directly  contrary 
to  those  influences  which  I  have  described  as  being  the  founda- 
tion of  renewed  agricultural  energy  in  Virginia.  It  concen- 
*  trated  the  interest  of  the  planter  in  his  slaves,  as  in  old  times 
it  had  been  concentrated  in  tobacco ;  the  improvement,  or  even 
the  sustentation  of  the  value  of  his  lands  became  a  matter  of 
minor  importance ;  the  taste  for  improving  husbandry,  except 
among  the  men  of  leisure,  capital,  and  highly-cultivated  minds, 
was  fatally  checked.  Mr.  Euffin,  a  gentleman  of  ultra,  and, 
it  seems  to  a  stranger,  fanatical  devotion  to  the  perpetuation 
of  slavery,  yet  otherwise  a  most  sensible  and  reliable  observer 


*  That  the  people  of  California  should  have  decided  not  to  permit  slaves  to 
be  sold  also  in  that  great  acquisition  to  our  territory,  has  been  an  intense 
disappointment  to  Virginia  slave-holders ;  and  the  influence  of  the  State,  for 
some  time  after  this  was  determined,  was  very  undecided  with  regard  to  further 
schemes  of  annexation. 


[28^7 


OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 


and  thinker,  unintentionally  gives  his  evidence  against  the  Slave 
Trade,  by  describing  the  effect  of  the  increased  value  it  gave  to 
negroes : 

"A  gang  of  slaves  on  a  farm  will  increase  to  four  times  their  original 
number  in  thirty  or  forty  years.  If  a  farmer  is  only  able  to  feed  and 
maintain  his  slaves,  their  increase  in  value  may  double  the  whole  of  his 
capital  originally  invested  in  farming  before  he  closes  the  term  of  an 
ordinary  life.  But  few  farms  are  able  to  support  this  increasing 
expense,  and  also  furnish  the  necessary  supplies  to  the  family  of  the 
owner  ;  whence  very  many  owners  of  large  estates,  in  lands  and  negroes, 
are,  throughout  their  lives,  too  poor  to  enjoy  the  comforts  of  life,  or  to 
incur  the  expenses  necessary  to  improve  their  unprofitable  farming.  A 
man  so  situated  may  be  said  to  be  a  slave  to  his  own  slaves.  If  the 
owner  is  industrious  and  frugal,  he  may  be  able  to  support  the  increas- 
ing numbers  of  his  slaves,  and  to  bequeath  them  undiminished  to  his 
children.  But  the  income  of  few  persons  increases  as  fast  as  their 
slaves,  and,  if  not,  the  consequence  must  be  that  some  of  them  will  be 
sold,  that  the  others  may  be  supported,  and  the  sale  of  more  is  perhaps 
afterwards  compelled  to  pay  debts  incurred  in  striving  to  put  off  that 
dreaded  alternative.  The  slave  at  first  almost  starves  his  master,  and 
at  last  is  eaten  by  him — at  least,  he  is  exchanged  for  his  value  in  food." 

What  a  remarkable  state  of  things  is  here  pictured  —  the 
labor  of  a  country  almost  exclusively  applied  to  agriculture, 
and  yet  able  to  supply  itself,  but  in  few  cases,  with  the  coarsest 
food ! 

The  interest  of  the  slaves'  owners  being  withdrawn,  by  their 
increasing  value  as  transferable  property,  from  their  land,  a 
gradual  but  rapid  amelioration  of  their  condition  followed,  as 
respects  physical  comfort.  Since  1820,  there  has  been  a  con- 
stant improvement  in  this  respect.  They  are  now  worked  no 
harder,  in  general,  than  is  supposed  to  be  desirable  to  bring 
them  into  high  muscular  and  vital  condition;  they  are  better 
fed,  clothed,  and  sheltered,  and  the  pliant  strap  and  scientific 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  281 

paddle  have  been  substituted,  as  instruments  of  discipline,  for 
the  scoring  lash  and  bruising  cudgel.* 

No  similar  progress,  it  is  to  be  observed,  has  been  made  in 
the  mental  and  moral  economy  of  Slavery  in  Virginia;  the  laws 
and  customs  being  a  good  deal  less  favorable,  than  formerly,  to 
the  education  of  the  race,  which  is  sufficiently  explainable. 
The  opinion  being  prevalent — and,  I  suppose,  being  well-founded 
— that  negro  property,  as  it  increases  in  intelligence,  decreases 
in  security ;  as  it  becomes  of  greater  value,  and  its  security 
more  important,  more  regard  is  naturally  paid  to  the  means  of 
suppressing  its  ambition  and  dwarfing  its  intellect. 

Of  course,  this  increased  care  of  the  slaves'  physical  well- 
being  adds  to  the  current  expenditure  of  their  master,  and 
makes  all  operations,  involving  labor,  cost  more  than  formerly ; 
and,  as  its  effect  is  to  force  more  rapid  breeding,  and  the 
number  of  slaves  does  not  diminish,  no  corresponding  en- 
couragement is  obtained  from  it  for  free-labor.  Consequently, 
the  internal  slave-trade  makes  the  cost  of  labor  greater,  and  its 
quality  worse,  precisely  in  proportion  to  its  activity.  This,  as  I 
pointed  out  in  the  last  chapter,  is  the  grand  reason  of  the  exces- 

*  Hoa.  Humphrey  Marshall,  of  Kentucky,  in  his  defense  of  Mat.  Ward,  thus 
describes  the  strap : 

"The  strap,  gentlemen,  you  are  probably  aware,  is  an  instrument  of  refined  mod- 
ern torture,  ordinarily  used  in  whipping  slaves.  By  the  old  system,  the  cow-hide — 
a  severe  punishment — cut  and  lacerated  them  so  badly  as  to  almost  spoil  their  sale 
when  brought  to  the  lower  markets.  But  this  strap,  I  am  told,  is  a  vast  improve- 
ment in  the  art  of  whipping  negroes  ;  and,  it  is  said,  that  one  of  them  may  be  pun- 
ished by  it  within  one  inch  of  his  life,  and  yet  he  will  come  out  with  no  visible 
injury,  and  his  skin  will  be  as  smooth  and  polished  as  a  peeled  onion  !" 

The  paddle  is  a  large,  thin  ferule  of  wood,  in  which  many  small  holes  are 
bored ;  when  a  blow  is  struck,  these  holes,  from  the  rush  and  partial  exhaustion 
of  ah-  in  them,  act  like  diminutive  cups,  and  the  continued  application  of  the 
instrument  has  been  described  to  me  to  produce  precisely  such  a  result  as  that 
attributed  to  the  strap  by  Mr.  M. 


282  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

sively  low  market  value  of  all  real  estate,  and  has  occasioned 
the  slow  and  stingy  application  of  capital  to  mining  and  other 
industrial  enterprises,  in  all  other  elements  for  the  success  of 
which  Virginia  is  so  exceedingly  rich. 

It  was,  for  a  long  time,  generally  expected  that  the 
demand  of  the  cotton-planters  would  gradually  draw  off 
all  the  slaves  from  Virginia,  and  that  the  State  would  thus 
be  redeemed  to  freedom.  The  objection  which  had  been  chiefly 
urged  against  Jefferson's  scheme  of  emancipation,  certainly. would 
have  had  less  weight,  during  thirty  years  past,  against  a 
requirement  that  all  slaves  below  mature  age,  remaining,  after  a 
certain  future  time,  in  the  State,  should  be  educated,  freed,  and 
transported ;  for  the  owners,  who  could  not  afford  to  lose  the 
value  of  their  property,  could,  at  any  time,  have  sold  away  their 
slaves,  at  very  much  more  than  their  cost  price,  before  the 
requirement  went  into  effect. 

It,  therefore,  became  advisable  to  stigmatize  such  a  proposition 
as  tyrannical — to  claim  for  a  class  the  power  of  thus  continuing 
to  ruin  the  State,  so  long  as  they  found  in  it  their  private  profit, 
as  a  legal  and  vested  right.  On  January  18,  1832,  a  member 
of  the  legislature,  Mr.  Gholson,  proclaimed  this,  in  the  following 
cunning  language.  Be  it  observed  that  all  existing  nuisances, 
and  those  that  are  a  part  of  them,  are  always  called  old- 
fashioned  ;  which,  oddly  enough  under  such  circumstances,  is 
considered  equivalent  to  respectable. 

"  It  has  always  (perhaps  erroneously)  been  considered,  by  steady  and 
old-fashioned  people,  that  the  owner  of  land  had  a  reasonable  right  to 
its  annual  profit,  the  owner  of  orchards  to  their  annual  fruits,  *  * 
and  the  owner  of  female  slaves  to  their  increase.  *  *  It  is  on  the  justice 
and  inviolability  of  this  maxim  that  the  master  foregoes  the  service  of 
the  female  slave,  has  her  nursed  and  attended  during  the  period  of 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  283 

gestation,  and  raises  the  helpless  infant  offspring.  The  value  of  the 
property  justifies  the  expense  ;  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  in  its 
increase  consists  much  of  our  wealth." 

That  is  to  say,  no  law  providing  for  the  freedom  of  unborn 
generations  is  to  be  considered  just ;  consequently,  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son's scheme  was  agrarian  and  preposterous. 

The  value  of  slaves  for  sale  has,  since  then,  pretty  steadily 
advanced ;  the  exportation  has  as  steadily  augmented ;  while  the 
stock  kept  on  hand  is  some  three  thousand  more  than  it  then 
was.  The  amiable  letter-writer,  whom  the  State  of  Jefferson  now 
delights  to  honor,  tells  our  simple  New  York  Democrats,  that 
if  they  had  not  been  so  foolish  as  to  favor  the  admission  of 
California  as  a  Free  State — if  they  had  been  able,  as  he  desired, 
to  force  it  to  become  a  Slave  State — it  would  have  opened  such 
a  market  for  slaves  as  would  have  soon  drained  them  all  out 
of  Virginia. 

I  do  not  believe,  if  prime  field-hands  should  ever  sell  for  ten 
thousand  dollars  a  head,  there  would  be  one  negro  less  kept 
in  Virginia  than  there  is  now,  when  they  are  worth  but  one 
thousand. 

How  would  this  increasing  demand  be  met,  then  % 

Very  easily:  by  the  re-importation  of  breeding-slaves  from 
the  consuming  States.  Connecticut  exports  bullocks  and  barren 
cows  by  the  thousand  annually ;  and  the  drovers  who  take  the 
working  and  fatted  stock  out,  often  drive  back  heifers  from  the 
districts  in  which  the  breeding  of  cattle  is  made  less  a  matter 
of  business,  and  is,  therefore,  less  profitable  than  it  is  in  that 
region  of  bleak  pastures. 

It  is  an  assertion  often  made,  and  generally  credited,  that  it 
is  only  since  the  rise  of  the  abolition  agitation  that  the  people  of 


284  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

the  South  have  shown  a  determined  disposition  to  perpetuate 
Slavery — that  in  Virginia,  especially,  the  people  would,  ere  this, 
have  abolished,  or  greatly  modified  it,  if  they  had  not  been  exas- 
perated to  folly  by  the  calumnious  and  impertinent  meddling  in 
the  matter  of  those  who  had  no  business  with  it. 

I  have  always,  until  recently,  taken  the  truth  of  this  assertion 
for  granted ;  and  have  often,  I  am  afraid,  somewhat  foolishly, 
repeated  it.  No  doubt  there  is  a  certain  basis  of  truth  in  it ;  no 
doubt  the  abolition  agitation  in  the  Free  States  has  been,  and  is 
in  many  respects,  injudicious  ;  but  I  am  induced  to  think  this 
charge  against  it  requires  to  be  made  with  some  reservation  and 
explanation. 

It  certainly  is  a  curious  coincidence — and  it  can  hardly  be 
thought  a  mere  coincidence,  it  seems  to  me — that  the  general 
indisposition  to  emancipate  slaves  has  been  very  closely  propor- 
tionate to  the  expense,  or  loss  of  cash  property,  which  would 
attend  it.  If  an  accurate  yearly  price-current  of  slaves  since 
the  Eevolution  could  be  had,  it  would  indicate  the  fluctuating 
probabilities  of  their  general  emancipation  more  exactly  than 
the  value  of  the  English  consolidated  debt  follows  the  varying 
prospects  of  peace  or  war. 

From  the  clay  in  which  Jefferson  inaugurated  the  agitation  for 
the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  up  to  1820,  the  Abolition  party 
in  Virginia,  though  it  never  succeeded  in  accomplishing  the 
smallest  of  its  legislative  purposes,  was  strong  in  talent  if  not 
in  number,  and  was  in  close  fraternity  and  affiliation  with  the 
more  successful  party  in  the  States  now  free.*    At  this  time  the 


*  Benjamin  Franklin  was  President,  and  George  Washington  and  Thomas 
Jefferson  correspondents,  of  the  Abolition  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  of  which 
Passmore  Williamson,  lately  lying  in  jail,  in  Philadelphia,  is  the  present  Secretary. 


THE    EXPERIENCE     OF    VIRGINIA.  285 

internal  slave  traffic  was  first  recognized  as  a  phenomena  of 
pregnant  importance ;  and  Randolph  and  other  Virginians 
lamented  it,  and  deplored  its  probable  consequences  in  Con- 
gress. 

There  were  then  (1820)  in  Virginia  no  men  of  education  and 
influence  who  were  not  slave-owners — and  as  such,  pecuniarily- 
interested,  more  or  less,  in  restraining  legislation  unfavorable  to 
Slavery.  During  the  next  fifteen  years,  the  Southern  demand  for 
slaves,  and,  consequently,  their  value  as  stock,  constantly  in- 
creasing, there  would  appear  to  have  been  a  struggle  between  the 
consciences  and  the  interests,  or  between  the  selfishness  and  the 
good  judgment,  of  those  who  had  constituted  the  anti-slavery 
influence  of  the  State.  Gradually  the  older  and  more  powerful 
opponents  of  the  perpetuation  of  the  system  passed  off  the  field 
of  action,  and  the  younger  were  induced  to  accept  what  they 
found  so  increasingly  profitable — at  least,  to  be  quiet,  and  leave 
its  determined  supporters  to  govern  and  represent  the  State. 

In  1830,  Daniel  Webster  said,  in  the  Senate : 

"  I  know  full  well,  that  it  is,  and  has  been,  the  settled  policy  of  some 
persons  in  the  South,  for  years,  to  represent  the  people  of  the  North  as 
disposed  to  interfere  with  them  in  their  own  exclusive  and  peculiar 
concerns.  This  is  a  delicate  and  sensitive  point  in  Southern  feeling ; 
and  of  late  years,  it  has  always  been  touched,  and  generally  with  effect, 
whenever  the  object  has  been  to  unite  the  whole  South  against  North- 
ern men  or  Northern  measures.  This  feeling,  always  carefully  kept  alive, 
and  maintained  at  too  intense  a  heat  to  admit  discrimination  or  reflec- 
tion, is  a  lever  of  great  power  in  our  political  machine.  It  moves  vast 
bodies,  and  gives  to  them  one  and  the  same  direction.  But  it  is  without 
adequate  cause,  and  the  suspicion  which  exists  is  wholly  groundless." 

Remember  that  slave  property  still  grew  daily  less  productive, 
Jut  more  valuable. 


286  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

Two  years  after  the  above  declaration  of  Mr.  Webster,  an 
important  debate  occurred  in  the  Virginia  Legislature,  with 
regard  to  Slavery.  The  Anti-Slavery  party  may  be  said  to  have 
then  made  its  last  demonstration,  and  final  protest,  against  the 
policy  which  now,  far  more  distinctly  than  formerly,  was  de- 
fended and  maintained  as  an  established  permanent  policy: 
whether  most  from  a  spirit  of  resistance  to  an  abolition  agita- 
tion at  the  North,  or  at  home,  or  from  the  increasing  value  of 
slaves,  the  reader  will  judge. 

On  that  occasion  (in  the  Virginia  Legislature,  in  the  city  of 
Richmond,  fifty-six  years  after  the  Declaration  of  Independence), 
there  were  still  not  wanting  some  men  who  saw  the  evil  of 
Slavery,  and  the  rights  of  slaveholders  in  the  same  light  that 
Jefferson,  and  Madison,  and  Mason,  and  Monroe,  and  Henry, 
and  all  the  real  statesmen  of  Virginia  had  done,  and  who  were 
brave  and  magnanimous  enough  to  utter  their  convictions. 
Thus,  one  Mr.  Faulkner  used  the  following  language,  especially 
significant  in  the  italicised  passage,  of  what  he  considered  to 
be  then  the  real  obstacle  in  the  way  of  measures  for  emanci- 
pation : 

"  Slavery,  it  is  admitted,  is  an  evil.  It  is  an  institution  which  presses 
heavily  against  the  best  interests  of  the  State.  It  banishes  free  white 
labor — it  exterminates  the  mechanic,  the  artisan,  the  manufacturer.  It 
converts  the  energy  of  a  community  into  indolence  ;  its  power  into  im- 
becility ;  its  efficiency  into  weakness.  Being  thus  injurious,  have  we  not 
a  right  to  demand  its  extermination  ?  Shall  society  suffer  that  the  slave- 
holder may  continue  to  gather  his  vigintial  crop  of  human  flesh  ?  What 
is  his  mere  pecuniary  claim,  compared  with  the  great  interests  of  the 
common  weal  ?  Must  the  country  languish  and  die,  that  the  slaveholder 
may  flourish  ?  Shall  all  interests  be  subservient  to  one  ?  Have  not 
the  middle  classes  their  rights — rights  incompatible  with  the  existence 
of  Slavery  ? 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.       v   287 

Mr.  Brodnax  :  "  That  Slavery  in  Virginia  is  an  evil,  and  a  trans- 
cendent evil,  it  would  be  more  than  idle  for  any  human  being  to  doubt 
or  deny.  It  is  a  mildew,  which  has  blighted  every  region  it  has 
touched,  from  the  creation  of  the  world.  Illustrations  from  the  history 
of  other  countries  and  other  times  might  be  instructive  ;  but  we  have 
evidence  nearer  at  hand,  in  the  short  histories  of  the  different  States  of 
this  great  confederacy,  which  are  impressive  in  their  admonitions,  and 
conclusive  in  their  character." 

Mr.  Summers  :  "  Will  gentlemen  inform  us  when  this  subject  will  be- 
come less  delicate — when  it  will  be  attended  with  fewer  difficulties  than 
at  present — and  at  what  period  we  shall  be  better  enabled  to  meet  them  ? 
Shall  we  be  more  adequate  to  the  end  proposed,  after  the  resources 
of  the  State  have  been  yet  longer  paralyzed  by  the  withering,  deso- 
lating influence  of  our  present  system?  Sir,  every  year's  delay  but 
augments  the  difficulties  of  this  great  business,  and  weakens  our  ability  to 
compass  it.'* 

PROGRESS    OF    THE     EXPERIMENT,    1855 PRESENT    POLICY,    PLANS, 

AND    PROSPECTS    OF    VIRGINIA. 

Having  suffered  twenty-three  years  longer  since  this  protest 
against  her  cherished  policy  was  made  in  her  Legislature,  now 
at  length  has  Virginia  acquired  the  necessary  strength  and 
courage  to  undergo  the  painful  operation  necessary  to  free  her 
from  that  chronic  malady  which,  from  the  earliest  period  of  her 
colonial  infancy,  has  constantly  debilitated  and  paralyzed  her. 

She  is  further  from  it  than  ever.  Like  a  poor  man,  rendered 
prematurely  imbecile  by  his  long  endurance  of  pain,  and  who, 
conscious  that  every '  pretext  against  the  application  of  the 
surgeon's  relieving  knife  has  been  long  since  exhausted, 
finally,  in  unconquerable  cowardice,  discharges  his  faithful  old 
family  physician,   feigns   to  despise  his  judgment,  and  throws 

*  Speeches  delivered  in  the  House  of  Delegates  of  Virginia,  in  relation  to 
her  colored  population,  January,  1832.  Richmond,  printed  by  Thomas  W. 
White. 


288  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

himself,  in  a  flood  of  grateful  tears,  into  the  embrace  of  some 
contemptible,  bragging  quack,  who  pretends  that  his  disease 
has  hitherto  been  entirely  misunderstood — who  predicts  that, 
under  his  care,  he  will  soon  be  the  strongest  man  in  town — 
who  diverts  him  with  expensive  nostrums,  and  amuses  him 
by  humorous  descriptions  of  his  own  debilitated  form  and 
palsied  movements ;  so  Virginia  now  insultingly  spurns 
from  her  councils  all  who  suggest  that  slavery  is  ever  to 
be  eradicated,  and  not  one  man  is  allowed  to  enter  her 
Legislature  who  dares  to  declare  and  demand  "the  rights 
of  the  middle  class,"  nay,  even  to  supplicate  for  them;  and 
if  one  should  now  petition  for  the  passage  of  the  amendment 
proposed  by  Jefferson,  he  would  actually  be  in  danger  of  losing 
his  life.  Such  has  been  the  influence  of  the  extension  of  cotton 
culture  and  the  demand  for  slaves  in  Virginia — such  is  the 
power  of  organized  capital  and  educated  wisdom,  in  a  repub- 
lic. 

Virginia  has  this  year  passed  through  an  exciting  election — 
the  most  so,  probably,  of  any  since  the  discussion  of  the  Alien 
and  Sedition  Acts.  It  was  preceded  by  a  prolonged  and  very 
thorough  canvass,  with  personal  appeals  to  the  conscience,  the 
•  patriotism,  and  especially  to  the  pecuniary  interests  of  the  people, 
by  the  rival  candidates  and  their  friends.  The  successful  can- 
didate is  said  to  have  made  more  than  sixty  addresses,  in  person, 
";o  large  assemblages  of  the  electors  convened  to  hear  him 
describe  the  policy  he  desired  to  pursue,  and  his  reasons  for  it. 

I  have  read  with  attention  all  the  reports  which  I  could 
obtain  of  these  expositions,  in  order  to  judge  from  them  what 
the  people  of  Virginia  now  want  or  expect  of  their  public 
servants.     Among  the  passages  which  are  represented  by  the 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  289 

reporters   to   have   been  received  with  great  applause   by  the 
intelligent  audience,  on  one  occasion,  are  the  following : 

"  Commerce  has  long  ago  spread  her  sails,  and  sailed  away  from  you. 
You  have  not,  as  yet,  dug  more  than  coal  enough  to  warm  yourselves 
at  your  own  hearths  ;  you  have  set  no  tilt-hammer  of  Vulcan  to  strike 
blows  worthy  of  gods  in  your  own  iron-foundries  ;  you  have  not  yet 
spun  more  than  coarse  cotton  enough,  in  the  way  of  manufacture,  to 
clothe  your  own  slaves. 

"  Tou  have  had  no  commerce,  no  mining,  no  manufactures. 

"  Tou  have  relied  alone  on  the  single  power  of  agriculture — and  such 
agriculture !  Your  sedge-patches  outshine  the  sun.  Your  inattention 
to  your  only  source  of  wealth  has  scared  the  very  bosom  of  mother 
earth.  Instead  of  having  to  feed  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills,  you  have 
had  to  chase  the  stump-tailed  steer  through  the  sedge-patches  to  procure 
a  tough  beef-steak.     (Laughter  and  applause.) 

"  The  present  condition  of  things  has  existed  too  long  in  Virginia. 
The  landlord  has  skinned  the  tenant,  and  the  tenant  has  skinned  the 
land,  until  all  have  grown  poor  together.  I  have  heard  a  story — I  will 
not  locate  it  here  or  there — about  the  condition  of  the  prosperity  of 
our  agriculture.  I  was  told  by  a  gentleman  in  Washington,  not  long 
ago,  that  he  was  traveling  in  a  county  not  a  hundred  miles  from  this 
place,  and  overtook"  one  of  our  citizens  on  horseback,  with,  perhaps,  a 
bag  of  hay  for  a  saddle,  without  stirrups,  and  the  leading  line  for  a 
bridle,  and  he  said  :  '  Stranger,  whose  house  is  that  ?'  '  It  is  mine,'  was 
the  reply.  They  came  to  another.  '  Whose  house  is  that  V  '  Mine, 
too,  stranger.'  To  a  third  :  'And  whose  house  is  that  V  '  That's  mine, 
too,  stranger ;  but  don't  suppose  that  I'm  so  darned  poor  as  to  own  all 
the  land  about  here.'  (Laughter  and  applause.)  We  may  own  land, 
we  may  own  slaves,  we  may  own  roadsteads  and  mines,  we  may  have  all 
the  elements  of  wealth ;  but  unless  we  apply  intelligence,  unless  we 
adopt  a  thorough  system  of  instruction,  it  is  utterly  impossible  that  we 
can  develop,  as  we  ought  to  develop,  and  as  Virginia  is  prepared  now 
to  do,  and  to  take  the  line  of  march  towards  the  very  eminence  of 
prosperity."     (Applause  and  continued  merriment.) 

And  how  does  the  fiddling  Nero  propose,  it  will  be  wondered, 

to  remedy  this  so  very  amusing  stupidity,  poverty,  and  debility? 

Very  simply  and  pleasantly.     By  building  railroads  and  canals, 
13 


290  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

ships  and  mills ;  by  establishing  manufactories,  opening  mines, 
and  setting  up  smelting-works  and  foundries.  And  "  Hurrah !" 
shout  the  tickled  electors  ;  "  that's  exactly  what  we  want." 

Indeed,  it  is  what  they  want;  but  how  are  they  going  to  get 
it?  one  is  next  anxious  to  ascertain.  This  question  is  neither 
asked  nor  answered.  The  confirmed  paralytic  and  dyspeptic 
pauper  is  told :  "All  you  want  is  a  good  digestion.  Take 
plenty  of  exercise,  walk  twenty  miles  a  day,  swing  dumb-bells, 
box,  fence,  row,  and  hunt ;  live  generously ;  breakfast  on  cutlets 
a  la  victime ;  dine  on  salmon  and  venison  with  truffles ;  sup  on 
canvas-backs,  and  don't  spare  pure  old  port."  "Ah!  that's  it; 
I'm  satisfied  you  understand  my  complaint,"  whispers  the  poor, 
bed-ridden  wretch ;  "  I  put  myself  in  your  hands."  "  Good," 
returns  the  laughing  charlatan ;  "  you  are  now  prepared  to 
develop." 

The  same  sagacious  candidate,  in  a  similar  strain  of  elo- 
quent mockery,  depicts  the  intense  ignorance  which  character- 
izes the  people  of  Virginia ;  and  affects  to  deplore  it,  though 
when  a  member  of  Congress  he  used  publicly  to  boast  of  it, 
and  congratulate  himself  upon  it,  as  preventing  disagreeable  dis- 
sensions in  his  constituency.  Now  he  laments  it,  and  ridi- 
cules it,  and  promises,  if  they  will  make  him  governor,  he 
will  set  about  remedying  it.     How? 

Actually,  he  has  the  impudence,  as  he  stands  there  laugh- 
ing at  them,  to  pretend  an  admiration  for  the  educational 
scheme  of  Jefferson,  and  to  promise  to  recommend  its  adop- 
tion by  the  State. 

And  the  poor  mob  appears  to  be  imposed  upon  again; 
and,  having  a  traditional  confidence  in  the  sincerity  of  Jeffer- 
son's democracy,  they  actually  cheer  him  as  if  he  was  in  earnest. 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  291 

"  He  was  in  earnest,"  will  the  reader  say,  if  about  the 
time  this  book  comes  out,  his  first  message  will  be  reported 
in  the  newspapers,  as  containing  a  recommendation  redeem- 
ing his  promise? 

Unless  he  also  recommends — which  I  think  would  make  an 
"  activity"  for  a  day  or  two  in  Wall  street — Jefferson's  sister 
scheme  for  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  I  should  say,  he  was 
not  in  earnest,  but  was  cruelly  imposing  again  upon  the  igno- 
rance of  the  poor,  quack-ridden  "  Democracy ;"  for  the  Demo- 
cratic scheme  of  education,  proposed  by  Jefferson,  is  as 
impracticable  and  fallacious  when  disconnected  from  that 
sister  scheme  of  his,  as,  when  associated  with  it,  it  is  admi- 
rable and  necessary  to  a  truly  Democratic  system  of  political 
economy. 

Every  Virginian  possessing  the  average  American  develop- 
ment of  brain,  and  not  quite  demented  with  avarice,  or  doc- 
trinairism,  must  know  this,  if  he  has  ever  had  any  interest 
in  the  workings  of  the  wretched  attempts  at  public  education 
employed  in  his  State. 

In  the  year  ending  Sept.  30,  1851,  there  were  in  ninety-eight 
counties,  the  School  Commissioners  of  which  made  reports  as 
required  by  law,  55,312  indigent  children,  between  eight  and 
eighteen  years  old,  needing  special  State  aid,  to  enable  them 
to  attend  any  school.  Besides  this  number,  there  were  those 
of  forty  counties,  and  the  towns  of  Norfolk,  Portsmouth, 
Williamsburg  and  Wheeling,  of  which  report  was  neglected 
to  be  made.  In  125  counties  but  30,324,  less  than  half  the 
immense  body  of  pauper-children  living  in  them,  were  enabled 
or  induced  to  attend  school  at  all ;  and  these  (namely,  the 
poor  children  mainly  living  nearest  schools  already  established 


292  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

and  supported  by  the  wealthy  for  their  own  children),  each  on 
an  average  Only  eleven  weeks  and  one  day  (less  than  one-quarter 
of  the  year).  This  pitiable  result  was  obtained  at  a  cost  to  the 
State  of  sixty-nine  thousand  dollars. 

The  Second  Auditor's  General  Eeport  on  Education,  from 
which  I  compile  these  facts,  contains  abstracts  of  sub-reports 
touching  the  working  of  the  system  then  in  operation,  and 
which,  I  was  assured  by  several  worthy  gentlemen  in  Kich- 
mond,  was  working  most  satisfactorily.  These  sub-reports  were 
drawn  up  by  the  County  School  Commissioners  and  Superin- 
tendents, through  whose  hands  what  is  called  the  Literary  Fund 
is  distributed.  From  them  I  shall  make  a  few  extracts,  which 
will  show  how  entirely  impracticable — while  the  white  popula- 
tion is  so  excessively  distributed,  as  it  needs  must  be,  where 
there  are  many  slaves — it  will  always  be  to  contrive  any 
valuable  system  of  education  for  the  families  of  those  not  able 
to  pay  for  each  scholar  at  a  very  high  rate  of  tuition. 

Albemarle  (White  Population,  11,875  ;  Slave  do,  13,338). — "The 
Board  of  Commissioners  state,  that  with  the  present  appropriation  to 
the  county,  they  must  be  dependent  upon  the  schools  established  by 
individual  enterprise.  They  can,  of  course,  proffer  their  assistance  only 
where  such  schools  exist." 

"  Tour  Superintendent  would  bring  to  your  consideration  the  import- 
ance of  recommending  an  increased  per  diem  rate  of  tuition  from  four 
to  five  cents,  as  many  of  the  best  qualified  teachers  in  the  county  object 
to  take  the  indigent  children  into  their  schools  on  account  of  the 
reduced  price  per  diem.  He  cannot  furnish  a  synopsis  of  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  Commissioners  in  the  county,  as  very  few  reports  have  been 
furnished  him." 

Amelia  (Whites,  2,785  ;  Slaves,  6.819  ;  number  of  indigent  children 
registered,  120  ;  number  of  do.,  who  attended  school  at  any  time  within 
a  year,  68). — No  remarks. 

Buckingham  (White  Population,  5,426  ;  Slave,  8,161). — "  The  Board 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  293 

of  School  Commissioners  report,  that  some  of  the  Commissioners  are 
unable,  for  the  want  of  schools,  to  expend  the  money  allotted  to  their 
districts.  They  have  no  regular  system  of  visiting  the  schools,  nor  do 
they,  as  a  body,  formally  examine  the  teachers,  leaving  that  to  be  done 
by  those  who  patronize  the  schools.  Neither  have  they  established 
schools  where  none  existed.  The  quota  to  this  county  is  not  sufficient 
to  educate  all  the  poor  children.  The  number  of  children  and  the  time 
they  are  sent  to  school,  is  discretionary  with  the  district  commission- 
ers." 

Charlotte  (White  Population,  4,615  ;  Slave,  8,988).— "The  Super- 
intendent states  that  in  three  or  four  of  the  districts,  schools  could  not  be 
obtained,  and  in  others  the  children  could  not  be  induced  to  go  ;  that  it  is 
utterly  impossible  to  induce  the  district  commissioners  to  have  the  ac- 
counts and  reports  made  out  according  to  form ;  the  consequence  is, 
that  there  is  a  great  difficulty  in  making  the  returns  in  due  time." 

Clarke  (Whites,  3,614 ;  Slaves,  3,614). — "  The  Board  has  no  regula- 
tions of  a  general  character  for  the  government  of  the  district  commis- 
sioners, as  they  have  only  acted  in  sessions  of  the  Board.  The  schools 
are  not  visited  by  them,  nor  can  they  judge  of  the  qualifications  of  the 
teachers,  because,  from  the  insufficiency  of  their  quota,  they  are  obliged 
to  send  the  indigent  children  to  such  established  schools  as  are  most 
convenient  to  .the  residence  of  the  children." 

Fauquier  (Whites,  9,875;  Slaves,  10,350). — "The  Commissioners 
would  call  attention  to  the  inadequacy  of  the  school  quota  of  this 
county,  for  the  tuition  of  the  indigent  children  within  its  limits.  They 
would  further  state,  as  the  reason  why  they  have  not  returned  the 
number  of  poor  children  in  their  respective  districts,  that  the  duty  is  a 
very  onerous  one,  and  such  as  they  are  not  able  to  perform  without 
compensation,  but  that  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties  they  endeavor  to 
aid  the  cause  of  education  as  much  as  they  can,  consistent  with  their 
own  private  interests,  and  are  at  all  times  ready  to  resign  their  trust 
to  any  who  will  perform  the  duties  of  the  office  more  faithfully  than 
themselves." 

Gloucester  (Whites,  4,290  ;  Slaves,  5,557). — "  Some  of  the  Commis- 
sioners have  visited  the  schools  in  their  districts,  and  are  happy  to  state 
that  there  is  a  considerable  improvement  in  the  pupils,  as  well  as  in 
the  management  and  the  course  of  instruction  on  the  part  of  the  teach- 
ers. The  school  quota  of  this  county  is  entirely  insufficient  to  educate 
the  indigent  children.     No  preference  is  given  to  either  sex." 


294  OUR     SLAVE     STATES 

Goochland  (Whites,  3,863 ;  Slaves,  5,845). — No  remarks  by  board  of 
school  commissioners. 

"  The  superintendent,  as  usual,  has  visited  some  of  the  schools,  and  has 
to  say,  that  at  some  of  them  the  scholars  were  progressing  very  well, 
whilst  at  others  they  were  not  doing  so  well  as  is  desirable." 

Halifax  (Whites,  10,916  ;  Slaves,  14,452  ;  poor  children,  803  ;  at- 
tended school,  378). — "The  individual  commissioners  have  occasionally 
visited  the  schools  to  which  they  entered  indigent  children,  and  found 
that  the  poor  children  were  improving  in  their  studies  as  well  as  other 
children.  The  teachers  are  well  qualified  to  teach  spelling,  reading, 
writing,  and  arithmetic,  which  is  all  that  can  be  hoped  for  that  class. 
The  annual  appropriation  from  the  treasury,  to  the  primary  schools  of 
this  county,  is  not  more  than  half  enough  to  educate  all  the  indigent 
children. 

"  They  have  no  alterations  to  suggest  in  the  present  system.  If  any 
were  made,  it  would  not  be  to  amend,  but  to  make  an  entire  alteration 
of  the  present  system  ;  but  they  do  not  believe  that  the  county  would 
adopt  such  a  system  as  they  would  recommend." 

Hanover  (Whites,  6,539  ;  Slaves,  8,393). — "  The  school  commissioners 
have  paid  some  attention  to  visiting  the  schools  in  their  districts.  The 
teachers  are  generally  persons  of  good  moral  character,  and  capable  of 
conducting  schools  of  respectable  grades.  Indigent  children  improve 
as  well  as  others,  and  are  generally  making  good  progress. 

"  The  commissioners  have  established  several  schools.  They  have  aided 
in  establishing  others  in  neighborhoods  where  they  could  not  otherwise 
have  been  established  ;  and  others  might  have  been  established  to  great 
advantage  but  for  the  want  of  funds.  There  appears  to  be  an  increas- 
ing desire  among  indigent  persons  to  have  their  children  educated,  but 
the  quota  of  the  Literary  fund  for  this  county  is  not  half  sufficient  to 
educate  all  of  them.  We  have  found  but  little  difficulty  in  getting 
indigent  children  to  attend  school,  except  amongst  the  most  ignorant  or 
degraded  class.  No  general  rule  has  been  adopted  by  them  for  the 
selection  of  children  to  be  sent  to  school,  except  what  the  law  requires." 

Kapahannock  (Whites,  5,642  ;  Slaves,  3,844). — "  The  board  of  school 
commissioners  state  that  the  appropriation  from  the  treasury  is  insuf- 
ficient to  educate  all  the  poor  of  the  county,  yet  as  there  are  many  indi- 
gent children,  whose  parents  cannot  be  prevailed  upon  to  send  them  to 
school,  they  generally  enter  all  the  indigent  children  who  will  attend 
school." 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  295 

King  William  (Whites,  2,701 ;  Slaves,  5,731). — "  The  commissioners 
report  that  such  of  the  commissioners  as  have  schools  in  their  districts 
have  visited  them.  They  find  the  teachers  well  qualified  to  give  instruc- 
tion in  the  common  branches  of  an  English  education,  and  that  the 
indigent  children,  for  the  time  they  attend  school,  learn  as  well  as  other 
children.  The  appropriation  from  the  treasury  is  fully  sufficient  for  all 
who  are  entered,  and  the  commissioners  enter  as  many  of  that  class  as 
they  or  the  teachers  can  get  to  attend  school."  (Number  of  poor  chil- 
dren returned,  246  ;  number  sent  to  school  within  the  year,  66.) 

Naksemond  (Whites,  5,424;  Slaves,  4,715). — "A  majority  of 
the  school  commissioners  find  difficulty  in  getting  indigent  chil- 
dren to  attend  school  regularly,  principally  owing  to  the  schools  not 
being  located  near  them ;  they  sometimes  send  children  to  another  dis- 
trict. Some  of  the  commissioners  have  visited  the  schools,  and  are 
well  satisfied  with  the  qualifications  of  the  teachers.  The  children  that 
attend  make  very  fair  improvement.  Children  from  eight  to  eighteen 
have  been  admitted  to  school  without  regard  to  sex.  The  commission- 
ers have  not  established  any  more  schools,  for  want  of  funds  ;  they  send 
to  schools  that  have  been  established  heretofore." 

Sussex  (Whites,  3,086;  Slaves,  5,992). — "The  commissioners  state  that 
they  have  no  power  in  regulating  the  government  of  the  schools.  The 
qualifications  of  the  teachers  they  believe  to  be  as  good  as  the  small 
sum  which  they  possess  will  command.  They  have  no  choice  generally 
in  the  selection  of  teachers — the  scholars  entered  are  taken  by  the  teach- 
ers as  objects  of  charity,  and  not  for  the  compensation  they  receive. 
The  fund  being  insufficient  to  educate  the  poor  of  the  county,  the  com- 
missioners have  made  selections  from  among  the  children,  giving  the 
preference  to  those  who  would  be  most  likely  to  attend  the  schools 
regularly." 

Southampton  (Whites,  5,940  ;  Slaves,  5,755). — "  The  commissioners 
state,  that  the  funds  appropriated  are  very  inadequate  to  the  education 
of  the  poor  children  of  the  county ;  that  not  one-half  of  them  attend 
school  at  all,  and  of  those  the  most  of  them  were  at  school  but  a  small 
portion  of  the  year  ;  that  the  parents  of  many  were  willing  and  anxious 
for  their  children  to  attend,  but  the  teachers  would  not  receive  them, 
because  there  was  nothing  to  pay  for  their  tuition.  They  further  state, 
that  the  irregular  attendance  of  the  poor  children  still  continues  to  be  one 
of  the  greatest  difficulties  they  labor  under  in  judiciously  applying  the 
funds  allotted  them  ;  and,  in  consequence  of  this,  the  school  commissioner 


296  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

is  very  much  embarrassed  in  distributing  his  quota  among  the  schools 
of  his  district,  and  consequently  in  determining  the  number  of  days  he 
should  enter  to  each  teacher,  as  he  can  form  no  correct  idea,  from  the 
number  of  children,  how  many  days  they  are  likely  to  make." 

Powhatan  ("Whites,  2,513  ;  Slaves,  5,282). — No  remarks.  Number 
of  poor  children,  150  ;  attended  school,  60. 

I  do  n*ot  mean  to  say  that,  if  the  people  will  submit  to  the 
necessary  taxation,  some  enormously  expensive  system  of  educa- 
tion may  not  be  adopted,  which  will  be  of  great  benefit  to  the 
State,  and  lead  to  a  more  rapid  development  of  her  resources, 
even  though  Slavery  should  still  continue  to  separate,  distract, 
and  debilitate  the  associative  energies  of  the  indigent  whites.  I 
have  not  a  doubt  this  can  be  done,  and  I  sincerely  trust  it  will  be 
tried.  But,  except  as  an  indirect  step  towards  the  abolition 
of  Slavery,  it  will  do  hardly  anything  towards  raising  Virginia 
to  an  equality  of  intelligence  with  the  Free  States,  or  to  that 
position  of  power  and  attractiveness  which  is  indicated  by  her 
natural  elements  of  wealth. 

Nor  can  anything  do  this,  but  a  free,  self-dependent, 
self-supporting,  and  self-respecting,  intelligent  laboring  people. 
Whether  the  negroes  can  be  made  a  part  of  such  a  people,  I 
need  not  here  give  an  opinion ;  but  I  will  say  that  I  can  see  no 
evidence  that  they  are  advancing  towards  it,  or  that  it  is  the 
general  intention  that  they  shall  advance  towards  it.  Whether, 
if  the  negroes  were  free,  and  remained  as  stupid,  as  helpless,  as 
contented,  as  unhopeful  and  unambitious,  and  as  indolent,  as  it  is 
claimed  they  are  at  present,  it  would  be  possible  to  have  any 
general  population  of  white  people  of  such  a  kind,  I  do  not  now 
care  to  answer.  But  I  declare,  with  confidence,  that  it  is  evidently 
an  absolute  impossibility  to  havje  such  a  people,  and  such  a 
development  of  the  State,  or  such  a  degree  of  intelligence  among 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  297 

the  mass  of  free  people  as,  under  a  republic,  it  is  of  vital 
importance  to  secure  to  them,  while  a  peculiar,  degraded, 
pitiable,  or  despicable  class,  capable  of  being  used  only  as  the 
instruments  of  labor  in  the  hands  of  a  more  intelligent,  is  by 
law  expressly  provided  for,  and  not  merely  left  unfurnished  with 
education  by  the  State,  but  expressly  prevented  from  being 
educated,  expressly  prevented  from  striving  to  improve  its  own 
capacity  of  usefulness  through  the  impulse  to  improve  its  status 
in  society.  While  such  a  class  is  carefully  conserved  for  the 
purposes  of  labor,  good,  careful,  high-spirited  and  high-purposed 
men,  disposed  to  turn  their  own  honest  labor  to  good  account, 
will  avoid  or  go  out  from  such  a  labor-market ;  and  only  bad, 
mean,  low-minded,  careless,  and  poor  laboring  people  will  come 
to  it,  or  stay  in  it.     So  it  always  has  been :  so  it  is  now. 

So  much  for  the  remedieswhich  the  new  governor  imposes  upon 
the  people  of  Virginia,  for  the  evils  under  which  the  State  suffers. 

What  little  he  has  time  to  say,  directly  of  Slavery,  he  says 
only  as  the  champion  and  advocate,  before  the  electors  at  large, 
of  the  interests  of  the  slaveholders,  and  in  denunciation  and  de- 
fiance of  those  who  may  dare  doubt  the  necessity  of  making 
that  interest  paramount  to  all  others  in  the  nation.  But  to  the 
slaveholders  themselves  he  especially  commends  himself,  by  the 
assertion,  that  if  he  could  have  had  his  way,  California  would 
have  been  a  Slave  State,  and  in  that  case  slaves  would  have 
been  worth  five  thousand  dollars  a-piece ! 

I  know  not  much  about  Louis  Blanc,  except  that  he  is  very 
much  detested  by  most  people,  and  especially  by  the  aristocracy 
and  the  stock-brokers  of  Europe,  but  I  saw  something  which  he 
said  lately  to  the  continental  democratic  refugees  in  England, 
which  seems  to  me  in  itself  true  and  good. 
13* 


298  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

"  The  republican  form  of  government  is  not  the  object :  the  object  is, 
to  restore  to  the  dignity  of  human  nature  those  whom  the  excess  of 
poverty  degrades,  and  to  enlighten  those  whose  intelligence,  from  want 
of  education,  is  but  a  dim,  vacillating  lamp,  in  the  midst  of  darkness ; 
the  object  is  to  make  him  that  works  enjoy  all  the  fruits  of  his  work  ; 
the  object  is  to  enfranchise  the  people,  by  endeavoring  gradually  to 
abolish  this  double  slavery — ignorance  and  misery.  A  very  difficult 
task,  indeed,  the  accomplishment  of  which  requires  long  study,  deep 
meditation,  and  something  more  than  discipline !  As  to  the  republican 
form  of  government,  it  is  a  means,  most  valuable,  certainly,  and  which 
we  ought  to  strive  to  conquer,  even  at  the  cost  of  life,  but  which  it  is 
very  imprudent  to  mistake  for  the  aim,  as  the  consequence  might  be  to 
make  us  take  the  shadow  for  the  substance,  and  run  through  a  heap  of 
ruins  io  fatal  delusions." 

I  think  this  mistake -has  been  made  by  the  Virginia  experi- 
menters :  the  republican  form  of  government  has  certainly  failed 
to  restore  to  much  dignity  of  human  nature  that  part  of  her 
population  degraded  by  excess  of  poverty,  or  to  very  materially 
enlighten  those  whose  intelligence,  for  want  of  education,  was 
dim  and  vacillating.  I  think,  also,  the  people  of  Virginia  have 
been  running  very  fast  through  their  "  heap  of  ruins,  towards 
fatal  delusions  " — fatal  delusions,  already  warmly  embraced,  as 
will  presently  be  seen. 

The  Richmond  Examiner  and  the  Richmond  Enquirer  are  the 
chief  organs  of  those  who  lead  the  long  dominant  party 
of  Virginia.  They  are  conducted  with  more  talent  than  any 
other  journals  of  the  State,  and  each  receives  a  very  much  larger 
income  from  its  subscribers  than  does  any  newspaper  in  the 
State  which  now  ever  distinctly  admits  Slavery  to  be  an  evil, 
desirable  or  possible  to  be  remedied. 

From  the  Richmond  Enquirer,  Sept.  6,  1855. 
"  "We  are  happy  to  find  that  others  of  our  Southern  cotemporaries  are 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  299 

"willing  to  discuss  (?)  the  true  and  great  question  of  the  day — The  exist- 
ence of  Slavery  as  a  permanent  institution  in  the  South. 

"  Every  moment's  additional  reflection  but  convinces  us  of  the  abso- 
lute impregnability  of  the  Southern  position  on  this  subject.  Facts, 
which  cannot  be  questioned,  come  thronging  in  support  of  the  true 
doctrine — that  Slavery  is  the  best  condition  of  the  black  race  in  this 
country,  and  that  the  true  philanthropists  should  rather  desire  that  race 
to  remain  in  a  state  of  servitude,  than  to  become  free,  with  the  privileges 
of  becoming  worthless.  *  *  *  The  Virginians  need  not  be  told  that,  as 
a  class,  there  is  not  a  more  worthless  or  dissolute  set  of  men  than  these 
free  negroes.  Our  slaves,  even,  look  upon  most  of  them  with  contempt, 
and  speak  of  them  with  a  sneer.  They  deserve  it.  There  are  some  few 
honorable  exceptions — but,  as  a  class,  they  are  the  most  despicable 
characters  our  State  contains.  This  is  not  peculiar  to  Virginia.  In 
the  Northern  States  as  well  as  in  the  Southern — indeed,  everywhere — 
this  is  the  true  state  of  facts  ;  and  we  were  not  surprised,  therefore,  to 
see  a  free  State  refuse  admission  to  the  Randolph  negroes.  Without, 
then,  going  the  length  of  declaring  that  Slavery  in  the  abstract — Slavery 
everywhere —  is  a  blessing  to  the  laboring  classes,  may  we  not  candidly 
and  calmly,  and  upon  the  matures!  and  soberest  reflection,  say  that  to 
the  black  race  of  the  Union  it  is  a  blessing,  and  perhaps  the  greatest 
blessing  we  can  now  confer  upon  them  ?" 

From  the  Richmond  Examiner,  1854. 

"  It  is  all  a  hallucination  to  suppose  that  we  are  ever  going  to  get 
rid  of  African  Slavery,  or  that  it  will  ever  be  desirable  to  do  so.  It 
is  a  thing  that  we  cannot  do  without,  that  is  righteous,  profitable,  and 
permanent,  and  that  belongs  to  Southern  society  as  inherently,  intri- 
cately, and  durably  as  the  white  race  itself.  Tea,  the  white  race  will 
itself  emigrate  from  the  Southern  States  to  Africa,  California,  or  Poly- 
nesia, sooner  than  the  African. 

Let  us  make  up  our  minds,  therefore,  to  put  up  with  and  make  the  most 
of  the  institution.  Let  us  not  bother  our  brains  about  what  Providence 
intends  to  do  with  our  negroes  in  the  distant  future,  but  glory  in  and 
profit  to  the  utmost  by  what  He  has  done  for  them  in  transplanting  them 
here,  and  setting  them  to  work  on  our  plantations.  Let  the  politicians 
and  planters  of  the  South,  while  encouraging  the  '  Baptists  and  Metho- 
dists,' (and  other  denominations  having  a  less  number  of  votes),  in  Chris- 
tianizing the  negro,  keep  their  slaves  at  hard  work,  under  strict  disci- 


300  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

pline,  out  of  idleness  and  mischief,  while  they  live  ;  and,  when  they  come 
to  die,  instead  of  sending  them  off  to  Africa,  or  manumitting  them  to  a 
life  of  "freedom,"  licentiousness,  and  nuisance,  will  them  over  to  their 
children,  or  direct  them  to  be  sold  where  they  will  be  made  to  work 
hard,  and  be  of  service  to  their  masters,  and  to  the  country.  True  phi- 
lanthropy to  the  negro,  begins,  like  charity,  at  home  ;  and  if  Southern 
men  would  act  as  if  the  canopy  of  heaven  were  inscribed  with  a  cove- 
nant, in  letters  of  fire,  that  the  negro  is  here,  and  here  forever  ;  is  our  pro- 
perty, and  ours  forever  ;  is  never  to  be  emancipated  ;  is  to  be  kept  hard  at 
work,  and  in  rigid  subjection  all  his  days  ;  and  is  never  to  go  to  Africa, 
to  Polynesia,  or  to  Yankee  Land  (far  worse  than  either) ,  they  would 
accomplish  more  good  for  the  race  in  five  years  than  they  boast  the 
institution  itself  to  have  accomplished  in  two  centuries,  and  cut  up  by 
the  roots  a  set  of  evils  and  fallacies  that  thi-eaten  to  drive  the  white  race 
a  wandering  in  the  western  wilderness,  sooner  than  Cuffee  will  go  to 
preach  the  Gospel  in  Guinea." 

I  think  these  notions,  if  the  policy  of  the  State  shall  continue 
in  accordance  with  them,  will  be  proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  all 
Northerners — all  who  do  not  trade  with  Virginia,  at  least — to  be 
delusions,  and  fatal  ones,  before  another  seventy-nine  years  of 
the  Republic  is  accomplished. 

And  th,at  these  papers  do  give  a  fair  expression  to  the  views 
and  purposes  of  the  present  governing  influence  in  Virginia, 
there  is  every  reason  to  believe.  Not  of  the  majority  of  the 
people — they  are  not  quite  so  demented  yet — but  of  the  majo- 
rity of  those  whose  monopoly  of  wealth  and  knowledge  has  a 
governing  influence  on  a  majority  of  the  people :  in  a  word,  of 
those  among_  the  educated  and  wealthy  slaveholders,  whose 
combined  patronage  and  talent,  applied  with  an  energy  and 
facility  for  political  labor,  unknown  to  the  more  conscientious 
and  liberal,  is  sufficient  to  make  everybody  else's  interest 
dependent  upon  and  subservient  to  their  own. 

There  are  certainly,  in  the  State   of  Virginia,  a  very  large 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  301 

number  of  voters,  strongly  desirous,  either  from  selfish  or 
other  motives,  that  the  State  should  be  freed  from  Slavery. 
I  have  conversed  with  enough  myself  almost  to  form  a  respect- 
able party;  and  if  a  party,  for  that  purpose,  could  once  be 
thoroughly  organized  and  equipped,  and  its  aims  well  adver- 
tised, I  have  not  the  least  doubt  that  a  majority  of  the  voters 
of  the  State  would  rejoice  to  enlist  in  it.  But,  suppose  a  man 
could  have  been  found,  with  the  necessary  audacity  to  offer 
himself  as  a  candidate  to  the  people  on  this  ground,  in 
opposition  alike  to  the  Know  Nothings  and  those  who, 
with  artful  absurdity,  assumed  the  name  of  Democrats,  at 
the  late  election.  There  is  not,  probably,  one  newspaper 
in  the  State  that  could  have  afforded  to  support  him.  If 
there  is,  it  is  published  at  a  manufacturing  town,  and  within 
a  stone's  throw  of  a  free  State,  and  where,  consequently,  there 
are  few,  if  any,  resident  slave-owners.  If  he  had  attempted 
to  make  the  rural  population  acquainted  with  his  plan,  he 
would  have  had  to  do  so,  literally,  by  hunting  them  up,  one 
by  one.  All  the  ordinary  means  of  collecting  assemblages 
would  have  been  denied  hirn,  or  he  would  have  been  able  to 
make  use  of  them  only  at  very  unusual  expense.  The  poor 
traders  and  mechanics  could  not  generally  have  afforded  to 
listen  to  him,  much  less  to  vote  for  him,  because,  there  being 
no  vote  by  ballot  in  Virginia,  it  would  be  immediately  known ; 
they  would  be  denounced  as  Abolitionists,  and,  at  least,  the 
slaveholders,  who  are  their  most  valued  customers,  would  decline 
employing  men  who  so  opposed  their  interests.  Under  these 
circumstances,  with  all  the  newspapers  and  bar-room  orators, 
and  many  of  the  pulpits  industriously  coupling  the  audacious 
candidate's  purposes  with  every  ridiculous  and  detestable  doo 


302  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

trine,  scheme,  and  ''ism,"  to  which  a  name  has  ever  been 
fixed,  it  would  appear,  to  the  most  conscientious  and  earnest" 
opponent  of  Slavery,  who  yet  gives  himself  the  vexation  and 
loss  of  remaining  in  the  State,  a  perfect  waste  of  his  vote  to 
give  it  to  a  man  so  evidently  unable  to  command  a  general 
vote  of  any  significance ;  and  he  would  determine,  probably, 
to  give  it  where  it  would  tell  against  the  least  objectionable 
of  the  candidates  who  stood  some  chance  of  being  successful. 
If  I  had  been  a  Virginian,  I  should  have  voted  myself  for  the 
gasconading  mountebank  who  was  elected  governor,  ambitious 
and  expert  for  mischief  as  he  certainly  is,  because  I  should  have 
been  conscientiously  bound  to  prevent,  as  far  as  my  vote  would 
do  it,  the  success  of  a  party  more  directly  opposed  to  Demo- 
cratic principles  than  is  that  which  disgraced  itself  by  allowing 
him  to  be  nominated  as  the  exponent  of  its  strength. 

It  can  only  be  by  affiliating  itself  with  a  party  of  great 
strength  and  success  at  the  North,  that  a  party  opposed  to  the 
interest  of  the  Slave  stock-jobbers  can  get  upon  its  legs  in  any 
Slave  State.  It  must  have  a  prestige  of  national  success,  to 
encourage  the  immense  labor  of  sufficient  organization  for 
local  success.  Only  by  a  resolute  determination  of  the  thinking 
men  of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  free  States,  not  to  be  driven 
from  the  Jeffersonian  creed  upon  Slavery,  can  the  Democratic 
party  in  Virginia  be  made  responsive  to  the  wants  of  the 
common  people,  or  otherwise  than  obstructive  in  its  action  to 
their  prosperity. 

THE     FUTURE    PROSPECT. 

Bail-roads  and  guano  seem,  just  now,  to  give  much  life 
and  improvement  to  Virginia. 


THE     EXPERIENCE     OF     VIRGINIA.  303 

Kail-roads,  badly  as  they  are  managed,  must  encourage  activity 
and  punctuality  in  the  people,  besides  increasing  the  value  of 
exports  of  the  country  through  which  they  pass,  and  diminish- 
ing the  cost  of  imports  by  lessening  the  above-sea  freightage 
expenses.  Beside  which,  they  cannot  be  prevented  from  dis- 
seminating intelligence  and  stirring  thought,  and  in  this  way 
they  will  do  more  than  any  school-system  at  present  possible. 

Guano  not  only  increases  the  immediate  crops,  to  which  it 
is  applied,  very  profitably,  but  may  be.  made  the  means  of 
rapidly  and  permanently  restoring  the  fertility  of  exhausted 
soils.  Where  judiciously  employed,  as  it  is  by  most  men 
of  wealth  and  education,  it  will  do  much  good ;  where  ignor- 
antly  or  improvidently  employed,  with  a  thought  only  of  imme- 
diate returns,  it  will  probably  lead  to  a  still  greater  exhaustion 
of  the  soil,  and  lessen  the  real  Avealth  of  the  poor  farmer. 
Thus  it  would  seem  likely  to  better  the  wealthy  and  intelligent, 
and  eventually  injure  the  lower  class.  It  must  be  added  that 
there  is  now  a  very  strong  and  most  judiciously  conducted 
State  Agricultural  Society,  and  one  of  the  best  agricultural 
journals  in  the  United  States  (the  Southern  Planter}  is  published 
at  Richmond. 

The  Constitution  of  the  State  has  been  democratized  lately, 
so  that  poor  people  may  vote,  but  no  sufficient  system  of 
instruction  has  been  instituted ;  and,  though  great  promises  are 
now  made,  it  is  probable,  as  I  have  shown,  that,  while  Slavery 
lasts,  there  never  can  be.  The  majority  of  the  people  will, 
therefore,  continue  to  be  amused  and  used  by  greedy  and 
ambitious  speculators  in  politics ;  and,  unless  the  West  is  more 
intelligent  than  it  has  thus  far  shown  itself  to  be,  the  State 
will  yet,  for  an  indefinite  time,  be  wholly  ruled  by  the  slave- 


304  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

holders,  and  everything  else  "will  continue,  as  heretofore,  to  he 
sacrificed  to  what  they  suppose  to  be  their  interests. 

But,  on  the  whole,  the  condition  of  the  people  has  certainly 
improved,  since  the  Eevolution,  both  in  comfort  and  in  intelli- 
gence; less  so,  very  much,  than  in  the  Free  States,  yet  very 
distinctly. 

The  diffusion  of  intelligence,  and,  with  it,  of  wealth,  is  likely 
to  be  even  more  rapid  in  future,  and  must  be  expected,  eventu- 
ally, to  result  in  a  revolution  and  reorganization  of  society,  with 
Free  Trade  in  Labor  as  its  corner-stone.  "Whether  this  pro- 
cess shall  be  spasmodic  and  bloody,  or  gradual  and  peaceful, 
will  depend  on  the  manner  in  which  it  is  resisted.  It  may  come 
this  century,  it  may  come  the  next.  The  sooner  the  better,  if 
broader  and  more  important  interests  are  not  too  greatly  endan- 
gered. For,  if  soon,  Virginia  might  yet  be  the  most  attractive 
field  of  enterprise  and  industry  in  America,  and  would  rapidly  be 
occupied  by  an  ambitious  and  useful  laboring  population — the 
parent  of  an  intelligent  and  respectable  people. 

As  things  are,  citizens  of  the  free  States,  especially  needing 
good  land  on  which  to  use  their  labor,  with  a  mild  climate,  and 
other  advantages  available  in  Virginia,  might,  perhaps,  colonize 
in  the  vicinity  of  rail-roads,  or  of  the  Ohio,  and  its  navigable 
tributaries,  with  advantage,  if  they  could  settle  together  in  suffi- 
cient numbers  to  give  business  to  various  kinds  of  industry. 
Under  no  other  circumstances  can  I  recommend  any  one  in  the 
free  States  to  choose  in  Virginia  a  residence  for  a  family,  unless 
a  move  southward  be  deemed  peculiarly  desirable,  as  offering  a 
chance  to  prolong  life,  imperiled  in  our  harsher  atmospheres. 


CHAPTER    V. 

NORTH    CAROLINA. 

"  MINE    EASE   IN    MINE" HOTEL. 

The  largest  and  best  hotel  in  Norfolk  had  been  closed, 
shortly  before  I  was  there,  from  want  of  sufficient  patronage 
to  sustain  it,  and  I  was  obliged  to  go  to  another  house  which, 
though  quite  pretending,  was  very  shamefully  kept.  The  land- 
lord paid  scarcely  the  smallest  attention  to  the  wants  of  his 
guests,  turned  his  back  when  inquiries  were  made  of  him, 
and  replied  insolently  to  complaints  and  requests.  His  slaves 
were  far  his  superiors  in  manners  and  morals ;  but,  not  being 
one  quarter  in  number  what  were  needed,  and  consequently 
not  being  able  to  obey  one  quarter  of  the  orders  that  were 
given  them,  their  only  study  was  to  disregard,  as  far  as  they 
would  be  allowed  to,  all  requisitions  upon  their  time  and 
labor.  The  smallest  service  could  only  be  obtained  by  bully- 
ing or  bribing.  I  had  to  make  a  bargain  for  every  clean 
towel  that  I  got  during  my  stay. 

I  was  first  put  in  a  very  small  room,  in  a  corner  of  the 
house,  next  under  the  roof.  The  weather  being  stormy, 
and  the  roof  leaky,  water  was  frequently  dripping  from  the 
ceiling  upon  the  bed  and  driving  in  at  the  window,  so  as  to 
stand  in  pools  upon  the  floor.      There  was   no   fire-place   in 


306  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

the  room ;  the  ladies'  parlor  was  usually  crowded  by  ladies 
and  their  friends,  among  whom  I  had  no  acquaintance,  and, 
as  it  was  freezing  cold,  I  was  obliged  to  spend  most  of  my 
time  in  the  stinking  bar-room,  where  the  landlord,  all  the  time, 
sat  with  his  boon  companions,  smoking  and  chewing  and  talk- 
ing obscenely. 

This  crew  of  old  reprobates  frequently  exercised  their  indig- 
nation upon  Mrs.  Stowe,  and  other  "  Infidel  abolitionists ;" 
and,  on  Sunday,  having  all  attended  church,  afterwards  mingled 
with  their  ordinary  ribaldry  laudations  of  the  "  evangelical" 
character  of  the  sermons  they  had  heard. 

On  the  night  I  arrived,  I  was  told  that  I  would  be  pro- 
vided, the  next  morning,  with  a  room  in  which  I  could  have 
a  fire,  and  a  similar  promise  was  given  me  every  twelve 
hours,  for  five  days,  before  I  obtained  it ;  then,  at  last,  I  had 
to  share  it  with  two  strangers. 

When  I  left,  the  same  petty  sponging  operation  was 
practiced  upon  me  as  at  Petersburg.  The  breakfast,  for 
which  half  a  dollar  had  been  paid,  was  not  ready  until  an 
hour  after  I  had  been  called;  and,  when  ready,  consisted  of 
cold  salt  fish ;  dried  slices  of  bread  and  tainted  butter ; 
coffee,  evidently  made  the  day  before  and  half  re-warmed ; 
no  milk,  the  milkman  not  arriving  so  early  in  the  morning, 
the  servant  said ;  and  no  sooner  was  I  seated  than  the  choice 
was  presented  to  me,  by  the  agitated  book-keeper,  of  going 
without  such  as  this,  or  of  losing  the  train  and  so  being  obliged 
to  stay  in  the  house  twenty-four  hours  longer. 

Of  course  I  dispensed  Avith  the  breakfast,  and  hurried  off  with 
the  porter,  who  was  to  take  my  baggage  on  a  wheel-barrow 
to  the  station.     The  station  was  across  the  harbor,  in  Ports- 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  307 

mouth.  Notwithstanding  all  the  haste  I  could  communicate 
to  him,  we  reached  the  ferry-landing  just  as  the  boat  left, 
too  late  by  three  seconds.  I  looked  at  my  watch ;  it  lacked 
but  twenty  minutes  of  the  time  at  which  the  landlord  and  the 
book-keeper  and  the  breakfast-table  waiter  and  the  rail-road 
company's  advertisements  had  informed  me  that  the  train 
left.  "  Nebber  mine,  masser,"  said  the  porter,  "  dey  wont  go 
widout  'ou — Baltimore  boat  haant  ariv  yet,  dey  doan  go 
till  dat  come  in,  sueh." 

Somewhat  relieved  by  this  assurance,  and  by  the  arrival  of 
others  at  the  landing,  who  evidently  expected  to  reach  the 
train,  I  went  into  the  market  and  bought  a  breakfast  from 
the  cake  and  fruit  stalls  of  the  negro-women. 

In  twenty  minutes  the  ferry-boat  returned,  and  after  wait- 
ing some  time  at  the  landing,  put  out  again ;  but  when  mid- 
way across  the  harbor,  the  wheels  ceased  to  revolve,  and  for 
fifteen  minutes  we  drifted  with  the  tide.  The  fireman  had 
been  asleep,  the  fires  had  got  low,  and  the  steam  given  out. 
I  observed  that  the  crew,  including  the  master  or  pilot,  and 
the  engineer,  were  all  negroes. 

We  reached  the  rail-road  station  about  half  an  hour  after  the 
time  at  which  the  train  should  have  left.  There  were,  several 
persons,  prepared  for  traveling,  waiting  about  it,  but  there 
was  no  sign  of  a  departing  train,  and  the  ticket-office  was 
not  open.  I  paid  the  porter,  sent  him  back,  and  was  added 
to  the  number  of  the  waiters. 

The  delay  wTas  for  the  Baltimore  boat,  which  arrived  in 
an  hour  after  the  time  the  train  was  advertised,  uncondition- 
ally, to  start,  and  the  first  forward  movement  was  more  than 
an  hour  and  a  half  behind  time.     A  brakeman  told  me  this 


308  OUR      SLAVE      STATES. 

delay  was  not  very  unusual,  and  that  an  hour's  waiting  might 
be  commonly  calculated  upon  with  safety. 

The  distance  from  Portsmouth  to  Welden,  N.  C,  eighty 
miles,  was  run  in  three  hours  and  twenty  minutes — twenty- 
five  miles  an  hour.  The  road,  which  was  formerly  a  very 
poor  and  unprofitable  one,  was  bought  up  a  few  years  ago, 
mainly,  I  believe,  by  Boston  capital,  and  reconstructed  in  a 
substantial  manner.  The  grades  are  light,  and  there  are  few 
curves.     Fare  2f  cents  a  mile. 

At  a  way-station,  a  trader  had  ready  a  company  of  negroes, 
intended  to  be  shipped  South ;  but  the  "  servants'  car"  being 
quite  full  already,  they  were  obliged  to  be  left  for  another  train. 
As  we  departed  from  the  station,  I  stood  upon  the  platform  of 
the  rear  car  with  two  other  men.  One  said  to  the  other : — 
.  "  That's  a  good  lot  of  niggers." 

"  .Damn'd  good  f  I  only  wished  they  belonged  to  me." 

I  entered  the  car  and  took  a  seat,  and  presently  they  followed, 
and  sat  near  me.  Continuing  their  conversation  thus  com- 
menced, they  spoke  of  their  bad  luck  in  life.  One  appeared  to 
have  been  a  bar-keeper ;  the  other  an  overseer.  One  said  the 
highest  wages  he  had  ever  been  paid  were  two  hundred  dollars  a 
year,  and  that  year  he  hadn't  laid  up  a  cent.  Soon  after,  the 
other,  speaking  with  much  energy  and  bitterness,  said : 

"I  wish  to  God  old  Virginny  was  free  of  all  the  niggers." 

"  It  would  be  a  good  thing  if  she  was." 

"Yes,  sir;  and,  I  tell  you,  it  would  be  a  damn'd  good  thing 
for  us  poor  fellows." 

"  I  reckon  it  would,  myself." 

When  we  stopped  at  Weldon,  a  man  was  shouting  from  a 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  309 

stage-coach,  "passengers  for  G-aston!  Hurry  up!  Stage  is 
waiting !"  As  lie  repeated  this  the  third  time,  I  threw  up  to  him 
my  two  valises,  and  proceeded  to  climb  to  the  box,  to  take  my 
Beat. 

"  You  are  in  a  mighty  hurry,  aint  ye !" 

"Didn't  you  say  the  stage  was  waiting?" 

"  If  ye'r  goin'  ter  get  any  dinner  to-day,  you'd  better  get  it 
here;  won't  have  much  other  chance.  Be  right  smart  about 
it,  too." 

"  Then  you  are  not  going  yet?" 

"You  can  get  yer  dinner,  if  ye  want  to." 

"  You'll  call  me,  will  you,  when  you  are  ready  to  go  V 

"I  shan't  go  without  ye,  ye  needn't  be  afeard — go  'long 
in,  and  get  yer  dinner ;  this  is  the  place,  if  anywar ; — don't 
wan't  to  go  without  yer  dinner,  do  ye  ?" 

Before  arriving  at  Weldon,  a  handbill,  distributed  by  the  pro- 
prietors of  this  inn,  had  been  placed  in  my  hands,  from  which 
I  make  the  following:  extracts : 


"  We  pledge  our  word  of  honor,  as  gentlemen,  that  if  the  fare  at  our 
table  be  inferior  to  that  on  the  table  of  our  enterprising  competitor,  we 
will  not  receive  a  cent  from  the  traveler,  but  relinquish  our  claims  to 
pay,  as  a  merited  forfeit,  for  what  we  would  regard  as  a  wanton  impo- 
sition upon  the  rights  and  claims  of  the  unsuspecting  traveler. 

"  We  have  too  much  respect  for  the  Ladies  of  our  House,  to  make  even 
a  remote  allusion  to  their  domestic  duties  in  a  public  circular.  It  will  not, 
however,  be  regarded  indelicate  in  us  to  say,  that  ,the  duties  performed 
by  them  have  been,  and  are  satisfactory  to  us,  and,  as  far  as  we  know, 
to  the  public.  And  we  will  only  add,  in  this  connection,  that  we 
take  much  pleasure  in  superintending  both  our  "  Cook-House"  and 
Table  in  person,  and  in  administering  in  person  to  the  wants  of  our 
guests. 

"We  have  made  considerable  improvements  in  our  House  of  late,  and 


310  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

those  who  wish  to  remain  over  at  Weldon,  will  find,  with  us,  airy  rooms, 
clean  beds,  brisk  fires,  and  attentive  a  ad  orderly  servants,  with  abun- 
dance of  FRESH  OYSTERS  during  the  season,  and  every  necessary 
and  luxury  that  money  can  procure. 

"  It  is  not  our  wish  to  deceive  strangers  nor  others  ;  and  if,  on  visiting 
our  House,  they  do  not  find  things  as  here  represented,  they  can  publish 
us  to  the  world  as  impostors,  and  the  ignominy  will  be  ours." 

Going  in  to  the  house,  I  found  most  of  the  passengers  by  the 
train  at  dinner,  and  the  few  negro  boys  and  girls  in  too  much 
of  a  hurry  to  pay  attention  to  any  one  in  particular.  The  only 
palatable  viand  within  my  reach  was  some  cold  sweet-potatoes ; 
of  these  I  made  a  slight  repast,  paid  the  landlord,  who  stood 
like  a  sentry  in  the  doorway,  half  a  dollar,  and  in  fifteen 
minutes,  by  my  watch,  from  the  time  I  had  entered,  Avent  out, 
anxious  to  make  sure  of  my  seat  on  the  box,  for  the  coach  was 
so  small  that  but  one  passenger  could  be  conveniently  carried 
outside.     The  coach  was  gone. 

"  0,  yes,  sir,"  said  the  landlord,  hardly  disguising  his  satis- 
faction ;  "  gone — yes,  sir,  some  time  ago  ;  you  was  in  to  dinner, 
was  you,  sir — pity !  you'll  have  to  stay  over  till  to-morrow  now, 
won't  you?" 

"I  suppose  so,"  said  I,  hardly  Avilling  to  give  up  my  intention 
to  sleep  in  Raleigh  that  night,  even  to  secure  a  clean  bed  and 
fresh  oysters.     "Which  road  does  the  stage  go  upon?' 

"  Along  the  county  road." 

"  Which  is  that — this  way  through  the  woods  ?" 

"Yes,  sir. — Carried  off  your  baggage,  did  he? — Pity!  Sup- 
pose he  forgot  you.     Pity !" 

"  Thank  you — yes,  I  suppose  he  did.  Is  it  a  pretty  good 
road?" 

"  No,  sir,  'taint  first-rate — good  many  pretty  bad  slews.     You 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  311 

might  go  round  by  the  Petersburg  Kail-road,  to-morrow.  You'd 
overtake  your  baggage  at  Gaston." 

"  Thank  you.  It  was  not  a  very  fast  team,  I  know.  I'm 
going  to  take  a  little  run ;  and,  if  I  shouldn't  come  back  before 
night,  you  needn't  keep  a  bed  for  me.     Good  day,  sir." 

I  am  pretty  good  on  the  legs  for  a  short  man,  and  it  didn't 
take  me  long,  by  the  pas  gymnastique,  to  overtake  the  coach. 

As  I  came  up,  the  driver  hailed  me — 

"Hallo!  that  you V3 

"  Why  did  not  you  wait  for  me,  or  call  me  when  you  wanted 
to  go,  as  you  promised  ?" 

"Beckoned  ye  was  inside — didn't  look  in,  coz  I  asked  if 
'twas  all  right,  and  somebody — this  'ere  gentleman,  here" — 
(who  had  got  my  seat)  "  '  Yes,'  says  he,  '  all  right ;'  so  I 
reckoned  'twas,  and  driv  along.  Mustn't  blame  me.  Ortn't  to 
be  so  long  swallerin'  yer  dinner — mind,  next  time !" 

The  road  was  as  bad  as  anything,  under  the  name  of  a  road, 
can  be  conceived  to  be.  Wherever  the  adjoining  swamps,  fallen 
trees,  stumps,  and  plantation  fences  would  admit  of  it,  the  coach 
was  driven,  with  a  great  deal  of  dexterity,  out  of  the  road. 
When  the  wheels  sunk  in  the  mud,  below  the  hubs,  we  were 
sometimes  requested  to  get  out  and  walk.  An  upset  seemed 
every  moment  inevitable.  At  length,  it  came ;  and  the  driver, 
climbing  on  to  the  upper  side,  opened  the  door,  and  asked,  with 
an  irresistibly  jolly  drawl — 

"Got  mixed  up  some  in  here  then,  didn't  ye?  Ladies,  hurt 
any?  Well,  come,  get  out  here;  don't  wan't  to  stay  here  all 
night  I  reckon,  do  ye  ? — Aint  nothing  broke,  as  I  see.  We'll 
right  her  right  up.  Nary  durn'd  rail  within  a  thousan'  mile,  I  don't 
s'pose  ;  better  be  lookin'  roun' ;  got  to  get  somethin'  for  a  pry." 


312  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

In  four  hours  after  I  left  the  hotel  at  Weldon,  the  coach 
reached  the  bank  of  the  Boanoke,  a  distance  of  fourteen  miles, 
and  stopped.     "Here  we  are,"  said  the  driver,  opening  the  door. 

"  Where  are  we — not  in  Gaston  V 

"  Durned  nigh  it.  That  ere's  Gaston,  over  thar ;  and  you  just 
holler,  and  they'll  corne  over  arter  you  in  the  boat." 

Gaston  was  a  mile  above  us,  and  on  the  other  side  of  the 
river.  Nearly  opposite  to  where  we  were  was  a  house,  and  a 
scow  drawn  up  on  the  beach ;  the  distance  across  the  river  was, 
perhaps,  a  quarter  of  a  mile.  When  the  driver  had  got  the 
luggage  off,  he  gathered  his  reins,  and  said : 

"  Seems  to  me  them  gol-durned  lazy  niggers  aint  a  goin'  to 
come  over  arter  you  now ;  if  they  won't,  you'd  better  go  up  to 
the  rail-road  bridge,  some  of  ye,  and  get  a  boat,  or  else  go  down 
here  to  Free-town ;  some  of  them  cussed  free  niggers  '11  be 
glad  of  the  job,  I  no  doubt." 

"  But,  confound  it,  driver !  you  are  not  going  to  leave  us  here, 
are  you  ?  we  paid  to  be  carried  to  Gaston." 

"  Can't  help  it ;  you  are  close  to  Gaston,  any  how,  and  if  any 
man  thinks  he's  goin'  to  hev  me  drive  him  up  to  the  bridge  to- 
night, he's  damnably  mistaken,  he  is,  and  I  ain't  a  goin'  to  do 
it,  not  for  no  man,  I  ain't." 

And  away  he  drove,  leaving  usj  all  strangers,  in  a  strange 
country,  just  at  the  edge  of  night,  far  from  any  house,  to 
"  holler." 

The  only  way  to  stop  him  was  to  shoot  him ;  and,  as  we  were 
all  good  citizens,  and  traveled  with  faith  in  the  protection  of  the 
law,  and  not  like  knights-errant,  armed  for  adventure,  we  could 
not  do  that. 

Good  citizens?     No,  we  were  not;  for  we  have  all,  to  this 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  313 

day,  neglected  to  prosecute  the  fellow,  or  his  employers.  It 
would,  to  be  sure,  have  cost  us  ten  times  any  damages  we  should 
have  been  awarded ;  but,  if  Ave  had  been  really  good  citizens,  we 
should  have  been  as  willing  to  sacrifice  the  necessary  loss,  as 
knights-errant  of  old  were  to  risk  life  to  fight  bloody  giants. 
And,  until  many  of  us  can  have  the  nobleness  to  give  ourselves 
the  trouble  and  expense  of  killing  off  these  impudent  highway- 
men of  our  time,  at  law,  we  have  all  got  to  suffer  in  their 
traps  and  stratagems. 

We  soon  saw  the  "  gol-durned  lazy  niggers  "  come  to  their 
scow,  and  after  a  scrutiny  of  our  numbers,  and  a  consultation 
among  themselves,  which  evidently  resulted  in  the  conclusion 
that  the  job  wouldn't  pay,  go  back. 

When  it  began  to  grow  dark,  leaving  me  as  a  baggage-guard, 
the  rest  of  the  coach's  company  walked  up  the  bank  of  the  river, 
and  crossed  by  a  rail-road  bridge  to  Gaston.  One  of  them  after- 
wards returned  with  a  gang  of  negroes,  whom  he  had  hired,  and 
a  large  freight-boat,  into  which,  across  the  snags  which  lined  the 
shore,  we  passed  all  the  baggage.  Among  the  rest,  there  were 
some  very  large  and  heavy  chests,  belonging  to  two  pretty 
women,  who  were  moving,  with  their  effects ;  and,  although  they 
remained  in  our  company  all  the  next  day,  they  not  only 
neglected  to  pay  their  share  of  the  boat  and  negro-hire,  but 
forgot  to  thank  us,  or  even  gratefully  to  smile  upon  us,  for  our 
long  toil  in  the  darkness  for  them. 

Working  up  the  swollen  stream  of  the  Eoanoke,  Avitk  setting- 
poles  and  oars,  Ave  at  length  reached  Gaston.  When  I  bought 
my  tickets  at  the  station  in  Portsmouth,  I  said :  "  I  will  take 
tickets  to  any  place  this  side  of  Ealeigh  at  which  I  can  arrive 

before  night.     I  wish  to  avoid  traveling  after  dark."     "You  can 
14 


314  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

go  straight  through  to  Ealeigh,  before  dark,"  said  the  clerk. 
"  You  are  sure  of  that  V  "  Yes,  sir."  On  reaching  Gaston,  I 
inquired  at  what  time  the  train  for  Ealeigh  had  passed:  "At 
three  o'clock."  According  to  the  advertisement,  it  should  have 
passed  at  two  o'clock ;  and,  under  the  most  favorable  circum- 
stances, it  could  not  have  been  possible  for  us,  leaving  Ports- 
mouth at  the  time  we  did,  to  reach  Gaston  before  four  o'clock, 
or  Ealeigh  in  less  than  twenty-eight  hours  after  the  time  pro- 
mised. The  next  day,  I  asked  one  of  the  rail-road  men  how 
often  the  connection  occurred,  which  is  advertised  in  the  North- 
ern papers,  as  if  it  were  a  certain  thing  to  take  place  at  Gaston. 
"  Not  very  often,  sir ;  it  hain't  been  once,  in  the  last  two  weeks." 
Whenever  the  connection  is  not  made,  all  passengers  whom  these 
rail-road  freebooters  have  drawn  into  their  ambush,  are  obliged 
to  remain  over  a  day,  at  Gaston ;  for,  as  is  to  be  supposed,  with 
such  management,  the  business  of  the  road  will  support  but  one 
train  a  day. 

The  route  by- sea,  from  Baltimore  to  Portsmouth,  and  thence 
by  these  lines,  is  advertised  as  the  surest,  cheapest,  and  most 
expeditious  route  to  Ealeigh.  Among  my  stage  companions, 
were  some  who  lived  beyond  Ealeigh.  This  was  Friday.  They 
would  now  not  reach  Ealeigh  till  Saturday  night,  and  such  as 
could  not  conscientiously  travel  on  Sunday,  would  be  detained 
from  home  two  days  longer  than  if  they  had  come  the  land 
route.  One  of  them  lived  some  eighty  miles  beyond  Ealeigh, 
and  intended  to  proceed  by  a  coach,  which  was  to  leave  Saturday 
morning.  He  would  probably  be  now  detained  till  the  following 
Wednesday,  as  the  coach  left  Ealeigh  but  twice  a  week. 

The  country  from  Portsmouth  to  Gaston,  eighty  miles,  partly 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  315 

in  Virginia,  and  partly  in  North  Carolina,  is  almost  all  pine 
forest,  or  cypress  swamp  ;  and  on  the  little  land  that  is  cultivated, 
I  saw  no  indication  of  any  other  crop  than  maize.  The  soil  is 
light  and  poor.  Between  Weldon  and  Gaston  there  are  heavier 
soils,  and  we  passed  several  cotton  fields,  and  substantial 
planters'  mansions.  On  the  low,  flat  lands  bordering  the 
banks  of  the  Roanoke,  the  soil  is  of  the  character  of  that  of 
James  river,  fine,  fertile,  mellow  loam ;  and  the  maize  crop 
seemed  to  have  been  heavy. 

GASTON. 

Gaston  is  a  village  of  some  twenty  houses,  shops  and  cabins, 
besides  the  rail-road  store-houses,  the  hotel,  and  a  nondescript 
building,  which  may  be  either  a  fancy  barn,  or  a  little  church, 
getting  high.  From  the  manner  in  which  passsengers  are  forced, 
by  the  management  of  the  trains  arriving  here,  to  patronize  it,  the 
hotel,  I  presume,  belongs  to  the  rail-road  companies.  It  is  ill- 
kept,  but  affords  some  entertainment  from  its  travesty  of  certain 
metropolitan  vulgarities.  I  was  chummed  with  a  Southern  gentle- 
man, in  a  very  small  room.  Finding  the  sheets  on  both  our  beds 
had  been  soiled  by  previous  occupants,  he  made  a  row  about  it 
with  the  servants,  and,  after  a  long  delay,  had  them  changed ; 
then,  observing  that  it  was  probably  the  mistress's  fault,  and  not 
the  servants',  he  paid  the  negro  whom  he  had  been  berating,  for 
his  trouble. 

NEGROES    ON    PUBLIC    CONVEYANCES. 

Among  our  inside  passengers,  in  the  stage-coach,  was  a  free 
colored  woman  ;  she  was  treated  in  no  way  differently  from  the 
white  ladies.     My  room-mate  said  this  was  entirely  customary 


/ 


I 


316  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

at  the  South,  and  no  Southerner  would  ever  think  of  objecting 
to  it.  Notwithstanding  which,  I  have  known  young  Southerners 
to  get  very  angry  because  negroes  were  not  excluded  from  the 
public  conveyances  in  which  they  had  taken  passage  themselves, 
at  the  North ;  and  I  have  always  supposed  that  when  they  were 
so  excluded,  it  was  from  fear  of  offending  Southern  travelers, 
more  than  anything  else. 

A  South  Carolina  View  of  the  Subject.  (Correspondence  of  Willis's 
Musical  World,  New  York). 

"  Charleston,  Dec.  31. 

"  I  take  advantage  of  the  season  of  compliments  (being  a  subscriber 
to  your  invaluable  sheet) ,  to  tender  you  this  scrap,  as  a  reply  to  a  piece 
in  your  paper  of  the  17th  ult.,with  the  caption  :  'Intolerance  of  colored 
persons  in  New  York.'  The  piece  stated  that  up-town  families  (in  New 
York)  objected  to  hiring  colored  persons  as  servants,  in  consequence  of 
'  conductors  and  drivers  refusing  to  let  them  ride  in  city  cars  and  omni- 
buses,' and  colored  boys,  at  most,  may  ride  on  the  top.  And  after 
dwelling  on  this,  you  say,  '  shame  on  such  intolerant  and  outrageous 
prejudice  and  persecution  of  the  colored  race  at  the  North !'  You  then 
say,  '  even  the  slaveholder  would  cry  shame  upon  us.'  You  never 
made  a  truer  assertion  in  your  life.  For  you  first  stated  that  they 
were  even  rejected  when  they  had  white  children  in  their  arms.  My 
dear  friend,  if  this  was  the  only  persecution  that  your  colored  people 
were  compelled  to  yield  submission  to,  then  I  might  say  nothing.  Are 
they  allowed  (if  they  pay)  to  sit  at  the  tables  of  your  fashionable 
hotels  ?  Are  they  allowed  a  seat  in  the  '  dress  circle,'  at  your  operas  ? 
Are  they  not  subject  to  all  kinds  of  ill  treatment  from  the  whites  ?  Are 
they  not  pointed  at,  and  hooted  at  by  the  whites  (natives  of  the  city), 
when  dressed  up  a  little  extra,  and  if  they  offer  a  reply,  are  immediately 
overpowered  by  gangs  of  whites?  You  appear  to  be  a  reasonable 
writer,  which  is  the  reason  I  put  these  queries,  knowing  they  can  only 
be  answered  in  the  affirmative. 

"  We  at  the  South  feel  proud  to  allow  them  to  occupy  seats  in  our 
omnibuses  (public  conveyances),  while  they,  with  the  affection  of 
mothers,  embrace  our  white  children,  and  take  them  to  ride.  And  in  our 
most  fashionable  carriages,  you  will  see  the  slave  sitting  alongside  of 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  317 

their  owner.  You  will  see  the  slave  clothed  in  the  most  comfortable  of 
wearing  apparel.  And  more.  Touch  that  slave,  if  you  dare,  and  you 
will  see  the  owner's  attachment.  And  thus,  in  a  very  few  words,  you 
have  the  contrast  between  the  situation  of  the  colored  people  at  the 
North  and  South.  Do  teach  the  detestable  Abolitionist  of  the  North 
his  duty,  and  open  his  eyes  to  the  misery  and  starvation  that  surrounds 
his  own  home.  Teach  him  to  love  his  brethren  of  the  South,  and  teach 
him  to  let  Slavery  alone  in  the  South,  while  starvation  and  destitution 
surrounds  him  at  the  North ;  and  oblige, 

"  Baron." 

pharmaceutical  science. 

Listening  to  a  conversation  among  some  men  lounging  on 
the  river-bank,  and  who  were,  probably,  brakemen  or  engineers 
on  the  rail-roads,  I  took  notes  of  the  following  interesting  in- 
formation : 

"  Nitrate  of  silver  is  a  first-rater ;  you  can  get  it  at  the 
'pothecary  shops  in  Eichmond.  But  the  best  medicine  there 
is,  is  this  here  Idee  of  Potasun.  It's  made  out  of  two  minerals; 
one  on  'em  they  gets  in  the  mountains  of  Scotland — that's  the 
Idee ;  the  other's  steel-filings,  and  they  mixes  them  eschemi- 
cally  until  they  works  altogether  into  a  solid  stuff  like  salt- 
petre. Now,  I  tell  you  that's  the  stuff  for  medicine.  It's  the 
best  thing  a  man  can  ever  put  into  his  self.  It  searches  out 
every  narve  in  his  body." 

GASTON    TO   RALEIGH— NIGHT    TRAINS. 

The  train  by  which  we  were  finally  able  to  leave  Gaston 
arrived  the  next  clay  an  hour  and  a  half  after  its  advertised 
time.  The  road  was  excellent  and  speed  good,  a  heavy  IT 
rail  having  lately  been  substituted  for  a  flat  one.  A  new  equip- 
ment of  the  road,  throughout,  is  nearly  complete.  The  cars 
of  this  train  were  very  old,  dirty,  and  with  dilapidated  and 


31S  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

moth-eaten  furniture.  They  furnished  me  with  a  comfort,  how- 
ever, which  I  have  never  been  able  to  try  before — a  full-length 
lounge,  on  which,  with  my  over-coat  for  a  pillow,  the  car  being 
warmed,  and,  unintentionally  well  ventilated,  I  slept  soundly 
after  dark.  Why  night-trains  are  not  furnished  with  sleeping 
apartments,  has  long  been  a  wonder  to  me.  We  have  now 
smoking-rooms  and  water-closets  on  our  trains ;  why  not  sleep- 
ing, dressing,  and  refreshment  rooms?  With  these  additions, 
and  good  ventilation,  we  could  go  from  New  York  to  New 
Orleans  by  rail  without  stopping:  as  it  is,  a  man  of  ordinary 
constitution  cannot  go  a  quarter  that  distance  without  suffering 
serious  indisposition.  Surely  such  improvements  could  not  fail 
to  be  remunerative,  particularly  on  lines  competing  with  water 
communication. 

The  country  passed  through,  so  far  as  I  observed,  was  almost 
entirely  covered  with  wood ;  and  such  of  it  as  was  cultivated, 
very  unproductive. 

RALEIGH. 

The  city  of  Ealeigh  (old  Sir  Walter),  the  capital  of  North 
Carolina,  is  a  pleasing  town — the  streets  wide  and  lined  with 
trees,  and  many  white  wooden  mansions,  all  having  little  court- 
yards of  flowers  and  shrubbery  around  them.  The  State-House 
is,  in  every  way,  a  noble  building,  constructed  of  brownish-grey 
granite,  in  Grecian  style.  It  stands  on  an  elevated  position, 
near  the  centre  of  the  city,  in  a  square  field,  which  is  shaded 
by  some  tall  old  oaks,  and  could  easily  be  made  into  an  appro- 
priate and  beautiful  little  park;  but  which,  with  singular 
negligence,  or  more  singular  economy  (while  $500,000  has 
been  spent  upon  the  simple  edifice),  remains  in  a  rude  state 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  3 19 

of  undressed  nature,  and  is  used  as  a  hog-pasture.  A  trifle 
of  the  expense,  employed  with  doubtful  advantage,  to  give  a 
smooth  exterior  face  to  the  blocks  of  stone,  if  laid  out  in 
grading,  smoothing,  and  dressing  its  ground  base,  would  have 
added  indescribably  to  the  beauty  of  the  edifice.  An  architect 
should  always  begin  his  work  upon  the  ground. 

There  are  several  other  public  buildings  and  institutions  of 
charity  and  education,  honorable  to  the  State.  A  church,  near 
the  Capitol,  not  yet  completed,  is  very  beautiful ;  cruciform  in 
ground  plan,  the  walls  of  stone,  and  the  interior  wood-work  of 
oiled  native  pine,  and  with,  thus  far,  none  of  the  irreligious 
falsities  in  stucco  and  paint  that  so  generally  disenchant  all 
expression  of  worship  in  our  city  meeting-houses. 

It  is  hard  to  admire  what  is  common ;  and  it  is,  perhaps, 
asking  too  much  of  the  citizens  of  Kaleigh,  that  they  should 
plant  for  ornament,  or  even  cause  to  be  retained  about  such 
institutions  as  their  Lunatic  Asylum,  the  beautiful  evergreens 
that  crowd  about  the  town ;  but  can  any  man  walk  from  the 
Capitol  oaks  to  the  pine  grove,  a  little  beyond  the  Deaf  and 
Dumb  Institution,  and  say  that  he  would  not  far  rather  have 
the  latter  than  the  former  to  curtain  in  his  habitation?  If  he 
can  in  summer,  let  him  try  it  again,  as  I  did,  in  a  soft  winter's 
day,  when  the  evergreens  fill  the  air  with  a  balsamic  odor,  and 
the  green  light  comes  quivering  through  them,  and  the  foot 
falls  silently  upon  the  elastic  carpet  they  have  spread,  deluding 
one  with  all  the  feelings  of  spring. 

The  country,  for  miles  "about  Ealeigh,  is  nearly  all  pine 
forest,  unfertile,  and  so  little  cultivated,  that  it  is  a  mystery 
how  a  toAvn  of  2,500  inhabitants  can  obtain  sufficient  supplies 
from  it  to  exist. 


320  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

The  public-house  at  which  I  stayed  was,  however,  not  only 
well  supplied,  but  was  excellently  well  kept,  for  a  house  of  its 
class,  in  all  other  respects.  The  landlord  superintended  his 
business  personally,  and  was  always  attentive  and  obliging  to 
his  guests ;  and  the  servants  were  sufficiently  numerous,  intelli- 
gent, and  well  instructed.  Though  I  had  no  acquaintances  in 
Ealeigh,  I  remained,  finding  myself  in  such  good  quarters, 
several  days.    I  think  the  house  was  called  "  The  Burlinghame." 

A    STAGE-COACH    CAMPAIGN. 

After  this  stay,  rendered  also  partly  necessary  for  the  repair 
of  damages  to  my  clothing  and  baggage  on  the  Weldon  stage, 
I  engaged  a  seat  one  day  on  the  coach,  advertised  to  leave  at 
nine  o'clock  for  Fayetteville.  At  half-past  nine,  tired  of 
waiting  for  its  departure,  I  told  the  agent,  as  it  was  not 
ready  to  start,  I  would  walk  on  a  bit,  and  let  them  pick  me 
up.  I  found  a  rough  road — for  several  miles  a  clayey  surface 
and  much  water — and  was  obliged  to  pick  my  way  a  good  deal 
through  the  woods  on  either  side.  Stopping  frequently,  when 
I  came  to  cultivated  land,  to  examine  the  soil  and  the  appear- 
ance of  the  stubble  of  the  maize — the  only  crop — in  three 
different  fields  I  made  five  measurements  at  random,  of  fifty 
feet  each,  and  found  the  stalks  had  stood,  on  an  average,  five 
feet  by  two  ■  feet  one  inch  apart,  and  that,  generally,  they  were 
not  over  an  inch  in  diameter  at  the  butt.  In  one  old-field,  in 
process  of  clearing  for  new  cultivation,  I  examined  a  most 
absurd  little  plow,  with  a  share  not  more  than  six  inches  in 
depth,  and  eight  in  length  on  the  sole,  fastened  by  a  socket 
to  a  stake,  to  which  was  fitted  a  short  beam  and  stilts.  It  was 
drawn  by  one  mule,  and  its  work  among  the  stumps  could  only 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  321 

be  called  scratching.  A  farmer  told  me  that  he  considered 
twenty-five  bushels  of  corn  a  large  crop,  and  that  he  generally- 
got  as  much  as  fifteen.  He  said  that  no  money  was  to  be  got 
by  raising  corn,  and  very  few  farmers  here  "  made"  any  more  than 
they  needed  for  their  own  force.  It  cost  too  much  to  get  it  to 
market,  and  yet  sometimes  they  had  had  to  buy  corn  at  a  dollar 
a  bushel,  and  wagon  it  home  from  Ealeigh,  or  further,  enough 
not  having  been  raised  in  the  country  for  home  consumption. 
Cotton  was  the  only  crop  they  got  any  money  for.  I,  never- 
theless, did  not  see  a  single  cotton-field  during  the  day.  He 
said  that  the  largest  crop  of  corn  that  he  knew  of,  reckoned  to 
be  fifty  bushels  to  the  acre,  had  been  raised  on  some  reclaimed 
swamp,  while  it  was  still  so  wet  that  horses  would  mire  on  it 
all  the  summer,  and  most  of  it  had  been  tended  entirely  with 
hoes. 

A  very  fine  oak  tree,  standing  by  itself  on  some  elevated 
ground,  having  attracted  me  to  a  considerable  distance  from 
the  road,  I  found  that  the  spread  of  its  branches  covered  a 
circle  of  the  diameter  of  forty-two  paces. 

After  walking  a  few  miles,  the  country  became  more  flat,  and 
was  covered  with  old  forests  of  yellow  pine,  and,  at  nine  miles 
south  of  Kaleigh,  there  were  occasionally  young  long-leaved 
pines :  exceedingly  beautiful  they  are  while  young,  the  color 
being  more  agreeable  than  that  of  any  other  pine,  and  the 
leaves,  or  straw,  as  its  foliage  is  called  here,  long,  graceful, 
and  lustrous.  As  the  tree  gets  older,  it  becomes  of  a  stiffer 
character  and  darker  color. 

I  do  not  think  I  passed,  in  ten  miles,  more  than  half  a  dozen 

homesteads,  and  of  these  but  one  was  above  the  character  of  a 

hut  or  cabin. 
14* 


322  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

A  little  after  one  o'clock  I  reached  "Bank's,"  a  plantation 
where  the  stage  horses  are  changed,  eleven  miles  from  Kaleigh ; 
and  the  coach  not  having  arrived,  I  asked  for  something  to  eat. 
A  lunch  was  prepared  for  me  in  about  fifteen  minutes.  There  was 
nothing  on  the  table,  when  I  was  invited  to  it,  except  some  cold 
salt  pork  and  pickled  beets;  but  as  long  as  I  remained,  at 
intervals  of  two  or  three  minutes,  additions  would  be  made,  till 
at  last  there  had  accumulated  five  different  preparations  of 
swine's  flesh,  and  two  or  three  of  corn,  most  of  them  just 
cooked ;    the  only  vegetable,  pickled  beets. 

Before  I  finished  my  repast,  the  coach  arrived,  and  I  took 
my  seat. 

"All  right?"  asked  the  driver. 

"You  haven't  changed  your  horses." 

"  Goin'  ter  change  the  wheelers  on  top  the  hill ;  horses  in  the 
field  there." 

Having  reached  the  hill  top,  the  change  was  effected — a 
change,  but  no  improvement.  The  fresh  horses  could  do  but 
little  more  than  stand  up ;  there  was  not  one  among  them  that 
would  have  sold  for  twenty-five  dollars  in  New  York.  "  There 
ain't  a  man  in  North  Car'lina  could  drive  them  horses  up  the 
hills  without  a  whip,"  said  the  driver.  "You  ought  to  get 
yesef  a  whip,  massa,"  said  one  of  the  negroes.  "  Durnation! 
think  I'm  going  to  buy  whips ;  the  best  whip  in  North  Car'lina 
wouldn't  last  a  week  on  this  road."  "  Bat's  a  fac — dat  ar  is  a 
fac;  but  look  yeah,  massa,  ye  let  me  hab  yer  stick,  and  I'll 
make  a  whip  for  ye ;  ye  nebber  can  make  Bawley  go  widout 
it,  no  now."  The  stick  was  a  sapling  rod,  of  which  two  or 
three  lay  on  the  coach  'top ;  the  negro  fastened  a  long  leather 
thong  to  it.     "  Dah !  ye  can  fetch  old  Bawley  wi'  dat."    "  Baw- 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  323 

ley "  had  been  tackled  in  as  the  leader  of  the  "  spike  team ;" 
hut,  upon  attempting  to  start,  it  was  found  that  he  couldn't  be 
driven  in  that  Avay  at  ail,  and  the  driver  took  him  out  and  put 
him  to  the  pole,  within  reach  of  the  butt  of  his  stick,  and 
another  horse  was  put  on  the  lead. 

One  negro  now  took  the  _  leader  by  the  head,  and  applied 
a  stick  lustily  to  his  flanks;  another,  at  the  near  wheeler,  did 
the  same ;  and  the  driver  belabored  Bawley  from  the  box. 
But  as  soon  as  they  began  to  move  forward,  and  the  negro  let 
go  the  leader's  head,  he  would  face  about.  After  this  had 
been  repeated  many  times,  a  new  plan  of  operations  was  ar- 
ranged that  proved  successful.  Leaving  the  two  wheelers  to 
the  care  of  the  negroes,  the  driver  was  enabled  to  give  all  his 
attention  to  the  leader.  When  the  wheelers  started,  of  course 
he  was  struck  by  the  pole,  upon  which  he  would  turn  tail  and 
start  for  the  stable.  The  negroes  kept  the  wheelers  from 
following  him,  and  the  driver  with  his  stick,  and  another  negro 
with  the  bough  of  a  tree,  thrashed  his  face ;  he  would  then  turn 
again,  and,  being  hit  by  the  pole,  start  ahead.  So,  after  ten 
minutes  of  fearful  outcry,  we  got  off. 

"How  far  is  it  to  Mrs.  Barclay's?"  a  passenger  had  asked. 
"  Thirteen  miles,"  answered  a  negro ;  "  but  I  tell  'ou,  massa, 
dais  a  heap  to  be  said  and  talk  'bout  'fore  'on  see  Missy  Bar- 
clay's wid  dem  hosses."     There  was,  indeed. 

"Bawley — you!  Bawley — Bawley!  wha'  'bout? — ah!" 

"  Mock  !  wha'  you  doin'  ? — (durned  sick  horse — an't  fit  to  be 
in  a  stage,  nohow)." 

"  Bawley !  you !  g'up !" 

"  Oh !  you  dod-rotted  Bob — Bob  ! — (he  don't  draw  a  pound, 
and  he  an't  a  goin'  to) — you,  Bob ! — (well,  he  can't  stop,  can  he, 


324  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

as  long  as  the  wheelers  keep  movin' ?)  Bob!  I'll  break  yer 
legs,  you  don't  git  out  the  way." 

"  Oh,  Bawley ! — (no  business  to  put  such  a  lame  boss  into  the 
stage.)     Blamnation,  Bawley !     Now,  if  you  stop,  I'll  kill  you." 

"  Wha'  'bout,  Bock  ?  Dod  bum  that  Bock !  You  stop  if  you 
dare  !     (I'll  be  durned  to  Hux  if  that  ere  hoss  arn't  all  used  up.)" 

"You,  Boh !  get  out  de  way,  or  I'll  be  — ." 

"  Oh !  d'rot  yer  soul,  Bawley — y're  goin'  to  stop !  G'up ! 
G'up!  Rock!  You  all-fired  ole  villain!  Wha'  'bout?  (If 
they  jus'  git  to  stoppin',  all  hell  couldn't  git  the  mails  through 
to-night.)" 

After  about  three  miles  of  this,  they  did  stop.  The  driver 
threw  the  reins  down  in  despair.  After  looking  at  the  wheels, 
and  seeing  that  we  were  on  a  good  piece  of  road,  nothing 
unusual  to  hinder  progress,  he  put  his  hands  in  his  pockets, 
and  sat  quietly  a  minute,  and  then  began,  in  a  business-like 
manner,  to  swear,  no  longer  confining  himself  to  the  peculiar 
idiomatic  profanity  of  the  countiy,  but  using  real,  outright, 
old-fashioned,  uncompromising  English  oaths,  as  loud  as  he 
could  yell.  Then  he  stopped,  and,  after  another  pause,  began 
to  talk  quietly  to  the  horses : 

"You,  Bob,  you  won't  draw?  Didn't  you  git  enough  last 
night?  (I  jabbed  my  knife  into  his  face  twice  when  we  got 
into  that  fix  last  night;"  and  the  wounds  on  the  horse's  head 
showed  that  he  spoke  the  truth.)  "  I  swar,  Bob,  if  I  have  to 
come  down  thar,  I'll  cut  your  throat." 

He  stopped  again,  and  then  sat  down  on  the  foot-board,  and 
began  to  beat  the  wheelers  as  hard  and  as  rapidly  as  possible 
with  the  butt  of  his  stick.  They  started,  and,  striking  Bob 
with  the  pole,  he  jumped  and  turned  round ;  but  a  happy  stroke 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  325 

on  "  the  raw "  in  his  face  brought  him  to  his  place ;  and  the 
stick  being  applied  just  in  time  to  the  wheelers,  he  caught  the 
pole  and  jumped  ahead.     We  were  off  again. 

"  Turned  over  in  that  'ere  mire  hole  last  night,"  said  the 
driver.  "  Couldn't  do  anythin'  with  'em — passengers  camped 
out — thar's  where  they  had  their  fire,  under  that  tree ;  didn't 
get  to  Raleigh  till  nine  o'clock  this  mornin'.  That's  the  reason 
I  wern't  along  arter  you  any  sooner — hadn't  got  my  breakfast; 
that's  the  reason  the  hosses  don't  draw  no  better  to-day,  too,  I 
s'pose.      You,  Rock  ! — Bawley  ! — Bob  ! 

After  two  miles  more,  the  horses  stopped  once  more. 
The  driver  now  quietly  took  the  leader  off  (he  had  never  drawn 
at  all),  and  tied  him  behind  the  coach.  He  then  began  beating 
the  near-wheeler,  a  passenger  did  the  same  to  Bawley — both 
standing  on  the  ground — while  I  threw  off  my  over-coat  and 
walked  on.  For  a  time  I  could  occasionally  hear  the  cry, 
"Bawl — Rock!"  and  knew  that  the  coach  was  moving  again; 
gradually  I  outwalked  the  sound. 

THE    PINY   WOOD. 

I  was  now  fairly  in  the  Turpentine  region  of  North  Carolina. 
The  road  was  a  mere  opening  through  a  forest  of  the  long- 
leafed  pine ;  the  trees  from  eight  to  eighteen  inches  in  diameter, 
with  straight  trunks  bare  for  nearly  thirty  feet,  and  their  ever- 
green foliage  forming  a  dense  dark  canopy  at  that  hight,  the 
surface  of  the  ground  undulating  with  long  swells,  occasionally 
low  and  wet.  In  the  latter  case,  there  was  generally  a  mingling 
of  deciduous  trees  and  a  water-course  crossing  the  road,  with  a 
thicket  of  shrubs.  The  soil  sandy,  with  occasionally  veins  of 
clay;  the  latter  more  commonly  in  the  low  ground,  or  in  the 


326  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

descent  to  it.  Very  little-  grass,  herbage,  or  under-wood ;  and 
the  ground  covered,  except  in  the  road,  with  the  fallen  pine- 
leaves.  Every  tree,  on  one,  two,  or  three  sides,  was  scarified 
for  turpentine.  In  ten  miles,  I  passed  half  a  dozen  cabins,  one 
or  two  small  clearings,  in  which  corn  had  been  planted,  and  one 
turpentine  distillery,  with  a  dozen  sheds  and  cabins  clustered 
about  it. 

In  about  an  hour  after  I  left  the  coach,  the  driver,  mounted 
on  Bob,  overtook  me :  he  was  going  on  to  get  fresh  horses. 

After  dark,  I  had  some  difficulty  in  keeping  the  road,  there 
being  frequent  forks,  and  my  only  guide  the  telegraph  wire.  I 
had  to  cross  three  or  four  brooks,  which  were  now  high,  and 
had  sometimes  floated  off  the  logs  which,  in  this  country,  are 
commonly  placed,  for  the  teamsters,  along  the  side  of  the  road, 
where  it  runs  through  water.  I  could  generally  jump  from 
stump  to  stump ;  and,  by  wading  a  little  at  the  edges  in  my 
staunch  Scotch  shooting  boots,  get  across  dry-shod.  Where, 
however,  the  water  was  too  deep,  I  always  found,  by  going  up 
or  down  stream,  a  short  way,  a  fallen  trunk  across  it,  by  which 
I  got  over. 

I  met  tbe  driver  returning  with  two  fresh  horses ;  and  at 
length,  before  eight  o'clock,  reached  a  long  one-story  cabin, 
which  I  found  to  be  Mrs.  Barclay's.  It  was  right  cheerful 
and  comforting  to  open  the  door,  from  the  dark,  damp,  chilly 
night,  into  a  large  room,  filled  with  blazing  light  from  a  great 
fire  of  turpentine  pine,  by  which  two  stalwart  men  were  reading 
newspapers,  a  door  opening  into  a  back-ground  of  supper- table 
and  kitchen,  and  a  nice,  stout,  kindly-looking,  Quaker-like  old 
lady  coming  forward  to  welcome  me. 

As  soon  as  I  was  warm,  I  was  taken  out  to  supper :  seven 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  327 

\  preparations  of  swine's  flesh,  two  of  maize,  wheat  cakes,  broiled 
quails,  cold  roast  turkey,  coffee,  and  tea. 

My  bed-room  was  a  house  by  itself,  the  only  connection  be- 
tween it  and  the  main  building  being  a  platform,  or  gallery,  in 
front.  A  great  fire  burned  here  also  in  a  broad  fire-place ;  a 
stuffed  easy-chair  had  been  placed  before  it,  and  a  tub  of  hot 
water,  which  I  had  not  thought  to  ask  for,  to  bathe  my  weary  feet. 

And  this  was  a  piny-woods  stage-house !  But  genius  will 
find  its  development,  no  matter  where  its  lot  is  cast;  and 
there  is  as  much  a  genius  for  hospitality  as  for  poetry.  Mrs. 
Barclay  is  a  Burns  in  her  way,  and  with  even  more  modesty ; 
for,  after  twenty-four  hours  of  the  best  entertainment  that 
could  be  asked  for,  I  was  only  charged  one  dollar.  I  paid  two 
dollars  for  my  stage-coach  privileges — to  wit,  riding  five  miles 
and  walking  twenty-one. 

At  three  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  three  gentlemen  that  I 
had  left  ten  miles  back  at  four  o'clock  the  previous  day,  were 
dragged,  shivering  in  the  stage-coach,  to  the  door.  They  had 
had  no  meal  since  breakfasting  at  Raleigh ;  and  one  of  them  was 
now  so  tired  that  he  could  not  eat,  but  lay  down  on  the  floor 
before  the  fire  and  slept  the  half  hour  they  were  changing 
.horses,  or  rather  resting  horses,  for  there  was  nothing  left  to 
change  to. 

I  afterwards  met  one  of  the  company  in  Fayetteville.  Their 
night's  adventure  after  I  left  them,  and  the  continued  cruelty  to 
the  horses,  were  really  most  distressing.  The  driver  once  got 
off  the  box,  and  struck  the  poor,  miserable,  sick  "Bock"  with  a 
rail,  and  actually  knocked  him  down  in  the  road.  At  another 
time,  after  having  got  the  fresh  horses,  when  they,  too,  were 
"stalled,"  he  took  them  out  of  the  harness  and  turned  them 


328  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

loose,  and,  refusing  to  give  any  answer  to  the  inquiries  of  the 
passengers,  looked  about  for  a  dry  place,  and  laid  down  and 
went  to  sleep  on  the  ground.  One  of  the  passengers  had  then 
walked  on  to  Mrs.  Barclay's,  and  obtained  a  pair  of  mules, 
with  which  the  coach  was  finally  brought  to  the  house.  The 
remainder  kindled  a  fire,  and  tried  to  rest  themselves  by  it. 
They  were  sixteen  hours  in  coming  thirty  miles,  suffering  much 
from  cold,  and  without  food. 

The  next  day  I  spent  in  visiting  turpentine  and  rosin  works, 
piny-wood  farms,  etc.,  under  the  obliging  guidance  of  Mrs. 
Barclay's  son-in-law,  and  in  the  evening  again  took  the  coach. 
The  horses  were  better  than  on  the  previous  stage :  upon  my 
remarking  this  to  the  driver,  he  said  that  the  reason  was,  that 
they  took  care  of  this  team  themselves  (the  drivers) ;  on  the  last 
stage  the  horses  were  left  to  negroes,  who  would  not  feed  them 
regularly,  nor  take  any  decent  care  of  them.  "  Why,  what  do 
you  think?"  said  he,  ''when  I  got  to  Banks's,  this  morning,  I 
found  my  team  hadn't  been  fed  all  day  ;  they  hadn't  been  rubbed 
nor  cleaned,  nary  durned  thing  done  to  'em,  and  thar  the  cussed 
darkey  was,  fast  asleep.  Eeckon  I  didn't  gin  him  a  wakin'  up !" 
"  You  don't  mean  the  horses  that  you  drove  up  ?" 
"  Yes,  I  do,  and  they  hadn't  a  cussed  thing  to  eat  till  they  got 
back  to  Barclay's !" 

"How  was  it  possible  for  you  to  drive  them  back?" 
"  Why,  I  don't  suppose  I  could  ha'  done  it  if  I'd  had  any  pas- 
sengers :  (you  Suze !)  shall  lose  a  mail  again  to-night,  if  this 
mare  don't  travel  better,  (durn  ye,  yer  ugly,  I  believe).  She's 
a  good  mare — a  heap  of  go  in  her,  but  it  takes  right  smart 
of  work  to  get  it  out.     Suze!" 

So  we  toiled  on,  with  incessant  shouting,  and  many  strange 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  329 

piny-wood  oaths,  and  horrid  belaboring  of  the  poor  horses' 
backs,  with  the  butt-end  of  a  hickory  whip-stalk,  till  I  really 
thought  their  spinal-columns  must  break.  The  country,  the 
same  undulating  pine  forest,  the  track  tortuous  among  the  trees, 
which  frequently  stood  so  close  that  it  required  some  care  to 
work  between  them.  Often  we  made  detours  from  the  original 
road  to  avoid  a  fallen  tree,  or  a  mire-hole,  and  all  the  time  we 
were  bouncing  over  protruding  roots  and  small  stumps.  There 
was  but  little  mud,  the  soil  being  sand,  but  now  and  then  a  deep 
slough.  In  one  of  these  we  found  a  wagon,  heavily  laden,  stuck 
fast,  and  six  mules  and  five  negroes  tugging  at  it.  With  our 
help  it  was  got  out  of  the  Avay,  and  we  passed  on.  Soon  after- 
wards we  met  the  return  coach,  apparently  in  a  similar  predica- 
ment ;  but  one  of  the  passengers,  whom  I  questioned,  replied : 
"  No,  not  stalled,  exactly,  but  somehow  the  horses  won't  draw. 
We  have  been  more  than  three  hours  coming  about  four  miles." 

".  How  is  it  you  have  so  many  balky  horses  V  I  asked  the 
driver. 

"  The  old  man  buys  'em  up  cheap,  'cause  nobody  else  can  do 
anything  with  'em." 

"  I  should  not  think  you  could  do  much  with  them,  either — 
except  to  kill  them." 

"  Well,  that's  what  the  old  man  says  he  buys  'em  for.  He 
was  blowing  me  up  for  losing  the  mail  t'other  night ;  I  told  him, 
says  I,  \  you  have  to  a'most  kill  them  horses,  'fore  you  can  make 
'em  draw  a  bit,'  says  I.  '  Kill  'em,  damn  'em,  kill  'em,  then ; 
that's  what  I  buy  'em  for,'  says  he.  '  I  buy  'em  a  purpose  to 
kill;  that's  all  they  are  good  for,  ain't  it?'  says  he.  'Don't 
s'pose  they're  going  to  last  forever,  do  ye  V  says  he." 

We  stopped  once,  nearly  half  an  hour,  for  some  unexplained 


330  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

reason,  before  a  house  on  the  road.  The  door  of  the  house  was 
open,  an  enormous  fire  was  burning  in  it,  and,  at  the  suggestion 
of  the  driver,  I  went  in  to  warm  myself.  It  was  a  large  log- 
cabin,  of  two  rooms,  with  beds  in  each  room,  and  with  an  apart- 
ment overhead,  to  which  access  was  had  by  a  ladder.  Among 
the  inmates  were  two  women ;  one  of  them  sat  at  the  chimney- 
corner,  smoking  a  pipe,  and  rocking  a  cradle;  the  other  sat 
directly  before  the  fire,  and  full  ten  feet  distant.  She  was  appa- 
rently young,  but  her  face  was  as  dry  and  impassive  as  a  dead 
man's.  She  was  doing  nothing,  and  said  but  little  ;  but,  once  in 
about  a  minute,  would  suddenly  throw  up  her  chin,  and  spit  with 
perfect  precision  across  the  ten  feet  range,  into  the  hottest  em- 
bers of  the  fire.  The  furniture  of  the  house  was  more  scanty 
and  rude  than  I  ever  saw  before  in  any  house,  with  women  living 
in  it,  in  the  United  States.  Yet  these  people  were  not  so 
poor  but  that  they  had  a  negro  woman  cutting  and  bringing 
wood  for  their  fire. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  this  is  a  long-settled  country, 
having  been  occupied  by  Anglo-Saxons  as  early  as  any  part  of 
the  Free  States. 

There  is  nothing  that  is  more  closely  connected,  both  as 
cause  and  effect,  with  the  prosperity  and  wealth  of  a  country, 
than  its  means  and  modes  of  traveling,  and  of  transportation  of 
the  necessities  and  luxuries  of  life.  I  saw  this  day,  as  I  shall 
hereafter  describe,  three  thousand  barrels,  of  an  article  worth  a 
dollar  and  a  half  a  barrel  in  New  York,  thrown  away,  a  mere 
heap  of  useless  offal,  because  it  would  cost  more  to  transport  it 
than  it  would  be  worth.  There  was  a  single  wagon,  with  a  ton 
or  two  of  sugar,  and  flour,  and  tea,  and  axes,  and  cotton  cloths, 
unable  to  move,  with  six  mules  and  five  negroes  at  work  upon  it. 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  331 

Baleigh  is  a  large  distributing  post-office,  getting  a  very  heavy 
mail  from  the  North ;  here  was  all  that  is  sent  by  one  of  its 
main  radii,  traveling  one  day  two  miles  an  hour,  the  next  four 
miles,  and  on  each  occasion  failing  to  connect  with  the  convey- 
ances which  we  pay  to  scatter  further  the  intelligence  and 
wealth  transmitted  by  it.  Barbarous  is  too  mild  a  term  to 
apply  to  the  manner  in  which  even  this  was  done.  The  im- 
providence, if  not  the  cruelty,  no  sensible  barbarian  could  have 
been  guilty  of. 

Afterwards,  merely  to  satisfy  my  mind  (for  there  is  a  satisfac- 
tion in  seeing  even  scoundrelism  consistently  carried  out,  if 
attempted  at  all  in  a  business),  I  called  on  the  agent  of  the  line 
at  Fayetteville,  stated  the  case,  and  asked  if  any  part  of  what  I 
had  paid  for  my  passage  would  be  returned  me,  on  account  of 
the  disappointment  and  delay  which  I  had  suffered  from  the  ina- 
bility of  the  proprietor  to  carry  out  his  contract  with  me.  The 
impudence  of  the  suggestion,  of  course,  only  created  amusement ; 
and  I  was  smilingly  informed  that  the  business  was  not  so 
"  lucky "  that  the  proprietor  could  afford  to  pay  back  money 
that  he  had  once  got  into  his  hands. 

A  PKAYING  BLACKSMITH. 

At  one  of  the  stations  for- changing  horses,  an  old  colored 
man  was  taken  into  the  coach.  I  ascertained  from  him  that  he 
was  a  blacksmith,  and  had  been  up  the  line  to  shoe  the  horses 
at  the  different  stables.  Probably  he  belonged  (poor  fellow,)  to 
the  man  who  bought  horses  to  be  killed  in  doing  his  work. 
After  answering  my  inquiries,  he  lay  down  in  the  bottom 
of  the  coach,  and  slept  until  we  reached  Fayetteville.  The 
next  time  we  changed,  the  new  driver  inquired   of  the  old  one 


332  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

what  passengers  lie  had.  "  Only  one  gentleman,  and  old  man 
Ned." 

"  Oh !  is  old  man  along — that's  good — if  we  should  turn  over, 
or  break  down,  or  anything,  reckon  he  could  nigh  about  pray  us 
up — he's  right  smart  at  prayin'." 

"Well,  I  tell  you,  now,  ole  man  can  trot  put  as  smart  a 
prayer,  when  he's  a  mind  to  go  in  for't,  as  any  man  I  ever 
heerd,  durned  if  he  can't." 

The  last  ten  miles  we  came  over  rajndly,  smoothly,  and 
quietly,  by  a  plank-road,  reaching  Fayetteville  about  twelve,  of 
a  fine,  clear,  frosty  night. 

TALENT  APPLIED  TO  INN-KEEfTNG. 

Entering  the  office  or  bar-room  of  the  stage-house,  at  which  I 
had  been  advised  to  stay  while  in  Fayetteville,  I  found  it  occu- 
pied by  a  group  of  old  soakers,  among  whom  was  one  of 
perhaps  sixteen  years  of  age.  This  lad,  without  removing  the 
cigar  which  he  had  in  his  mouth,  went  to  the  bar,  whither  I 
followed  him,  and,  without  saying  a  word,  placed  an  empty  tum- 
bler before  me. 

" I  don't  wish  anything  to  drink,"  said  I ;  "I  am  cold  and 
tired,  and  I  would  like  to  go  to  a  room.  I  intend  to  stay  here 
some  days,  and  I  should  be  glad  if  you  could  give  me  a  private 
room,  and  I  should  like  to  have  a  fire  in  it." 

"  Eoom  with  a  fire  in  it  ?"  he  inquired,  as  he  handed  me  the 
registry-book. 

"  Yes,  and  I  will  thank  you  to  have  it  made  immediately,  and 
let  my  baggage  be  taken  up." 

He  closed  the  book,  after  I  had  written  my  name,  and  returned 
to  his  seat  at  the  stove,  leaving  me  standing,  and  immediately 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  333 

engaged  in  conversation,  without  paying  any  attention  to  my 
request.  I  waited  some  time,  during  which  a  negro  came  into 
the  room,  and  went  out  again.  I  then  repeated  my  request, 
necessarily  aloud,  and  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  understood,  not 
only  by  the  boy,  but  by  all  the  company.  Immediately  all  con- 
versation ceased,  and  every  head  was  turned  to  look  at  me. 
Some  faces  showed  evident  signs  of  amusement.  The  lad  paused 
a  moment,  spit  upon  the  stove,  and  then — 

"Want  a  room  to  yourself?" 

"  Yes,  if  convenient,  and  with  a  fire  in  it." 

No  answer  and  no  movement,  all  the  company  staring  at  me 
as  if  I  was  a  detected  burglar. 

"Perhaps  you  can't  accommodate  me!" 

"  Want  a  fire  made  in  your  room  V 

"  Why,  yes,  if  convenient ;  but  I  should  like  to  go  to  my 
room,  at  any  rate ;  I  am  very  tired." 

After  puffing  and  spitting  for  a  moment,  he  rose  and  pulled 
a  bell ;  then  took  his  seat  again.  In  about  five  minutes  a  negro 
came  in,  and  during  all  this  time  there  was  silence. 

"  What'll  you  drink,  Baker,"  said  the  lad,  rising  and  going  to 
the  bar,  and  taking  no  notice  of  the  negro's  entrance.  A  boozy 
man  followed  him,  and  made  some  reply ;  the  lad  turned  out 
two  glasses  of  spirits,  added  water  to  one,  and  drank  it  in  a  gulp.*' 

"  Can  this  boy  show  me  to  my  room  V  I  asked. 

"  Anybody  in  number  eleven,  Peter  ?" 


*  The  mother  of  this  young  man  remonstrated  with  a  friend  of  mine,  for 
permitting  his  son  to  join  a  company  of  civil  engineers,  engaged,  at  the  time, 
in  surveying  a  route  for  a  road — he  would  be  subject  to  such  fatiguing  labor, 
and  so  much  exposure  to  the  elements ;  and  congratulated  herself  that  her  own 
child  was  engaged  in  such  an  easy  and  gentleman-like  employment  as  that  of 
hotel-clerk  and  bar-keeper. 


334  OUR      SLAVE      STATES. 

"Not  as  I  knows  on,  sar." 

"Take  this  man's  baggage  up  there." 

I  followed  the  negro  up  to  number  eleven,  which  was  a  large 
back  room,  in  the  upper  story,  with  four  beds  in  it. 

"  Peter,"  said  I,  "  I  want  a  fire  made  here." 

"Want  a,  fire,  sar?" 

"  Yes,  I  want  you  to  make  a  fire." 

"  Wan't  a  fire,  master,  this  time  o'  night?" 

"  Why,  yes  !  I  want  a  fire  !  Where  are  you  going  with  the 
lamp?" 

"  Want  a  lamp,  massa  ?" 

"Want  a  lamp?     Certainly,  I  do." 

After  about  ten  minutes,  I  heard  a  man  splitting  wood  in 
the  yard,  and,  in  ten  more,  Peter  brought  in  three  sticks 
of  green  wood,  and  some  chips ;  then,  the  little  bed-lamp 
having  burned  out,  he  went  into  an  adjoining  room,  where  I 
heard  him  talking  to  some  one,  evidently  awakened  by  his 
entrance  to  get  a  match;  that  failing,  he  went  for  another. 
By  one  o'clock,  my  fire  was  made. 

"Peter,"  said  I,  "are  you  going  to  wait  on  me,  while  I  stay 
here?" 

"  Yes,  sar ;   I  'tends  to  dis  room." 

"  Very  well ;  take  this,  and,  when  I  leave,  I'll  give  you  an- 
other, if  you  take  good  care  of  me.  Now,  I  wan't  you  to  get 
me  some  water." 

"  I'll  get  you  some  water  in  de  morning,  sar." 

"  I  want  some  to-night — some  water  and  some  towels  ;  don't 
you  think  you  can  get  them  for  me  ?" 

"I  reckon  so,  massa,  if  you  wants  'em.  Want  'em  'fore 
you  go  to  bed  ?" 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  335 

"  Yes  ;  and  get  another  lamp." 

"Want  a  lamp?" 

"Yes,  of  course." 

"Won't  the  fire  do  you?" 

"  No ;  bring  a  lamp.  That  one  won't  burn  without  filling ; 
you  need  not  try  it." 

The  water  and  the  lamp  came,  after  a  long  time. 

In  the  morning,  early,  I  was  awakened  by  a  knock  at  the 
door. 

"  Who's  there  ?" 

"Me,  massa;  I  wants  your  boots  to  black." 

I  got  up,  opened  the  door,  and  returned  to  bed.  Falling 
asleep,  I  was  soon  again  awakened  by  Peter  throwing  down  an 
armful  of  wood  upon  the  floor.  Slept  again,  and  was  again 
awakened,  by  Peter's  throwing  up  the  window,  to  empty  out  the 
contents  of  the  wash-bowl,  etc.  The  room  was  filled  with  smoke 
of  the  fat  light-wood :  Peter  had  already  made  a  fire  for  me  to 
dress  by ;  but  I  again  fell  asleep,  and,  when  I  next  awoke,  the 
breakfast-bell  was  ringing.  Peter  had  gone  off,  and  left  both 
the  window  and  the  door  open.  The  smoke  had  been  blown 
out,  and  the  fire  had  burned  out.  My  boots  had  been  taken 
away,  and  not  returned;  and  the  bell-wire  was  broken.  I 
dressed,  and  walked  to  the  bar-room  in  my  stockings,  and  asked 
the  bar-keeper — a  polite,  full-grown  man — for  my  boots.  He  did 
not  know  where  they  were,  and  rang  the  bell  for  Peter.  Peter 
came,  was  reprimanded  for  his  forgetfulness,  and  departed. 
Ten  minutes  elapsed,  and  he  did  not  return.  I  again  requested 
that  he  should  be  called;  and,  this  time,  he  came  with  my 
boots.  He  had  had  to  stop  to  black  them:  having,  he  said, 
been  too  busy  to  do  it  before  breakfast. 


336  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

The  following  evening,  as  it  grew  too  cold  to  write  in  my 
room,  I  went  down,  and  found  Peter,  and  told  him  I  wanted  a 
fire  again,  and  that  he  might  get  me  a  couple  of  candles. 
When  he  came  up,  he  brought  one  of  the  little  bed-lamps,  with 
a  capacity  of  oil  for  fifteen  minutes'  use.  I  sent  him  down 
again  to  the  office,  with  a  request  to  the  proprietor  that  I 
might  be  furnished  with  candles.  He  returned,  and  reported 
that  there  were  no  candles  in  the  house. 

"  Then,  get  me  a  larger  lamp." 

"Aint  no  larger  lamps,  nuther,  sar; — none  to  spare." 

"Then  go  out,  and  see  if  you  can't  buy  me  some  candles, 
somewhere." 

"Aint  no  stores  open,  Sunday,  massa,  and  I  don't  know 
where  I  can  buy  'em." 

"  Then  go  down,  and  tell  the  bar-keeper,  with  my  compli- 
ments, that  I  wish  to  write  in  my  room,  and  I  would  be  obliged 
to  him  if  he  would  send  me  a  light,  of  some  sort;  something 
that  will  last  longer,  and  give  more  light,  than  these  little  lamps." 

"He  won't  give  you  none,  massa — not  if  you  hab  a  fire. 
Can't  you  see  by  da  light  of  da  fire  ?  When  a  gentleman  hab 
a  fire  in  his  room,  dey  don't  count  he  Avants  no  more  light  'n 
dat." 

"  Well,  make  the  fire,  and  I'll  go  down  and  see  about  it." 

As  I  reached  the  foot  of  the  stairs,  the  bell  rung,  and  ] 
went  in  to  tea.  The  tea-table  was  moderately  well  lighted  with 
candles.  I  waited  till  the  company  had  generally  left  it,  and 
then  said  to  one  of  the  waiters : 

"  Here  are  two  dimes :  T  want  you  to  bring  me,  as  soon  as 
you  can,  two  of  these  candles  to  number  eleven ;  do  you  under- 
stand?" 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  337 

"  Yes,  sar ;  I'll  fotcli  'em,  sar." 
And  he  did. 

"fire!     turn  out!" 

About  eight  o'clock,  there  was  an  alarm  of  fire.  Going  into 
the  street,  I  was  surprised  to  observe  how  leisurely  the  people 
were  walking  towards  the  house  in  flames,  standing  very  promi- 
nently, as  it  did,  upon  a  hill,  at  one  end  of  the  town.  As  1 
passed  a  church,  the  congregation  was  coming  out;  but  very 
few  quickened  their  step  above  a  strolling  pace.  Arrived  near 
the  house,  I  was  still  more  astonished  to  see  how  few,  of  the 
crowd  assembled,  were  occupied  in  restraining  the  progress 
of  the  fire,  or  in  saving  the  furniture,  and  at  the  prevailing 
stupidity,  confusion,  and  want  of  system  and  concert  of  action, 
in  the  labor  for  this  purpose.  A  large  majority  of  those  who 
were  thus  engaged  were  negroes.  As  I  returned  towards  the 
hotel,  a  gentleman,  walking,  with  a  lady,  before  me,  on  the 
side-walk,  accosted  a  negro  whom  he  met : 

"  What !  Moses  !  That  you  %  Why  were  you  not  here 
sooner  V 

"Why,  Mass  Eichard,  I  was  a  singing,  an'  I  didn'  her  de 

bells  and 1  see  twant  in  our  ward,  sar,  and  so  I  didn'  see 

as  dar  was  zactly  'casion  for  me  to  hurry  mysef  to  def.  Ef  eed 
a  been  in  our  ward,  Mass  Eichard,  I'd  a  rallied,  you  knows 
I  would.  Mose  would  ha  rallied,  ef  eed  a  been  in  our  ward — 
ha!  ha!  ha! — you  knows  it,  Mass  Eichard!" 

And  he  passed  on,  laughing  comically,  without  further  re- 
proof. 


15 


338  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

TURPENTINE    AND    NAVAL    STORES. 

Turpentine  is  the  crude  sap  of  pine-trees.  It  varies  some- 
what, in  character  and  in  freedom  of  flow,  with  the  different 
varieties ;  the  long-leafed  pine  (Pinus  Palustris)  yielding  it  more 
freely  than  any  other. 

There  are  very  large  forests  of  this  tree  in  North  and  South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Alabama ;  and  the  turpentine  business  is 
carried  on,  to  some  extent,  in  all  these  States.  In  North  Caro- 
lina, however,  much  more  largely  than  in  the  others  ;  because, 
in  it,  cotton  is  rather  less  productive  than  in  the  others,  in  an 
average  of  years.  Negroes  are,  therefore,  in  rather  less  demand; 
and  their  owners  oftener  see  their  profit  in  employing  them  in 
turpentine  orchards  than  in  the  cotton-fields. 

In  the  region  in  which  the  true  turpentine-trees  grow,  indeed, 
there  is  no  soil  suitable  for  growing  cotton ;  and  it  is  only  in  the 
swampy  parts,  or  on  the  borders  of  streams  flowing  through  it, 
that  there  is  any  attempt  at  agriculture.  The  farmer,  in  the 
forest,  makes  nothing  for  sale  but  turpentine,  and,  when  he 
cultivates  the  land,  his  only  crop  is  maize ;  and  of  this,  I  was 
often  told,  not  more  than  five  bushels  from  an  acre  is  usually 
obtained.  Of  course,  no  one  would  continue  long  to  raise 
such  crops,  if  he  had  wages  to  pay  for  the  labor ;  but, 
having  inherited  or  reared  the  laborers,  the  farmer  does  not 
often  regard  them  as  costing  him  anything  more  than  what 
he  has  to  pay  for  their  clothes  and  food — which  is  very  little. 

Few  turpentine-farmers  raise  as  much  maize  as  they  need  for 
their  own  family ;  and  those  who  carry  on  the  business  most, 
largely  and  systematically,  frequently  purchase  all  the  food  of 
their  hands.  Maize  and  bacon  are,  therefore,  very  largely 
imported  into  North  Carolina,  chiefly  from  Ohio,  by  the  Balti 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  339 

more  and  Wheeling  rail-road,  and  from  Baltimore  to  Wilmington 
or  Newbern,  by  sea. 

The  turpentine  forest  is  from  thirty  to  eighty  miles  wide,  and 
extends  from  near  the  north-line  of  North  Carolina  to  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico.  Until  lately,  even  in  North  Carolina,  the  business 
of  collecting  turpentine  has  been  confined  to  such  parts  of  the 
forest  as  "were  situated  most  conveniently  to  market — the  value 
of  the  commodity  not  warranting  long  inland  transportation. 
Eecently,  the  demand  has  increased,  owing,  probably,  to  the 
enlarged  consumption  of  spirits  of  turpentine  in  "  burning 
fluids ;"  and  the  business  has  been  extended  into  the  depths  of 
the  forest.  It  is  yet  thought  a  hazardous  venture  to  start  the 
business  where  more  than  thirty  miles  of  wagoning  is  required 
to  bring  the  spirits  of  turpentine  to  a  rail-road,  or  navigable 
water.* 

If  we  enter,  in  the  winter,  a  part  of  a  forest  that  is  about  to 
be  converted  into  a  "  turpentine  orchard,"  we  come  upon  negroes 
engaged  in  making  boxes,  in  which  the  sap  is  to  be  collected  the 
following  spring.  They  continue  at  this  work  from  November 
to  March,  or  until,  as  the  warm  weather  approaches,  the  sap 
flows  freely,  and  they  are  needed  to  remove  it  from  the  boxes 
into  barrels.  These  "  boxes"  are  not  made  of  boards,  nailed  to- 
gether in  a  cubical  form,  as  might  be  supposed ;  nor  are  they 
log-troughs,  such  as,  at  the  North,  maple-sap  is  collected  in. 
They  are  cavities  dug  in  the  trunk  of  the  tree  itself.  A  long, 
narrow  ax,  made  in  Connecticut,  especially  for  this  purpose,  is 
used  for  this  wood-pecking  operation ;  and  some  skill  is  required 
to  use  it  properly.     We  may  see  the  green  hands  doing 'prentice 

*  Since  this  was  written,  a  great  decline  of  prices  has  occurred. 


340  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

work  upon  any  stray  oaks,  or  other  rcon-turpentine  trees  they 
can  find  in  the  low  grounds. 

The  boxes  are  made  at  from  six  inches  to  a  foot  above  the 
roots,  and  are  shaped  like  a  distended  waistcoat-pocket.  The 
lower  lip  is  horizontal — the  upper,  arched;  the  bottom  of  the 
box  is  about  four  inches  below  the  lower  lip,  and  eight  or  ten 
below  the  upper.  On  a  tree  of  medium  size,  a  box  should  be 
made  to  hold  a  quart.  The  less  the  ax  approaches  towards  the 
centre  of  the  tree,  to  obtain  the  proper  capacity  in  the  box,  the 
better,  as  the  vitality  of  the  tree  is  less  endangered ;  but  this 
is  little  thought  about. 

An  expert  hand  will  make  a  box  in  less  than  ten  minutes ; 
and  seventy-five  to  a  hundred — according  to  the  size  and 
proximity  of  the  trees — is  considered  a  day's  work. 

The  boxes  being  made,  the  bark,  and  a  few  of  the  outer  rings 
of  the  wood  of  the  tree,  are  cut  off  ("hacked")  along  the  edge 
of  the  upper  lip.  From  this  excoriation,  the  sap  begins  to  flow 
about  the  fifteenth  of  March,  and  gradually  fills  the  boxes,  from 
which  it  is  taken  by  a  spoon  or  ladle,  of  a  peculiar  form,  and 
collected  into  barrels. 

The  turpentine  barrels  are  made  by  negro  coopers ;  the  staves 
split  from  pine-logs,  shaved  and  trimmed.  They  are  hooped 
with  split  oak-saplings.  Coopers'  wages,  when  hired  out,  are 
from  $1  50  to  $2  a  day.  A  good  cooper  is  expected  to  make 
six  or  seven  barrels  a  day.  They  are  of  the  rudest  construc- 
tion possible — the  staves  being  straight,  and  forming  a  simple 
cylinder — thirty  inches  long  and  eighteen  inches  diameter,  head 
ed  up  at  both  ends,  with  a  square  hole  in  one  end,  where  the 
turpentine  is  poured  in. 

In  from  seven  to  ten  days  after  the  first  hacking,  the  trees  aro 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  341 

* 

again  scarified.  This  is  done  with  a  hatchet,  or  with  an  instru- 
ment made  for  the  purpose.  A  very  slight  chip,  or  shave,  above 
the  former,  is  all  that  is  needed  to  be  removed ;  the  object  being 
merely  to  expose  a  new  surface  of  the  cellular  tissue — the  flow 
from  the  former  being  clogged  by  congelations  of  the  sap. 

These  hackings  being  made  three  or  four  times  a  month,  the 
excoriation  is  constantly  advancing  higher  up  the  trunk.  The 
slighter  the  cut,  the  less  the  tree  is  injured,  and  the  slower  the 
advance,  and  the  longer  and  the  more  conveniently  may  the 
process  be  carried  on :  nevertheless,  in  ninety-nine  "  orchards" 
out  of  a  hundred,  you  will  see  that  the  chip  has  always  been 
much  broader  and  deeper  than,  with  the  slightest  care  to  restrict 
it,  it  needed  to  have  been.  If  the  "dipping"  has  commenced 
.-.when  you  visit  the  orchard,  you  will  notice  that  the  turpentine 
collected  has  much  rubbish — chips  and  leaves — in  it,  considerably 
injuring  its  value.  The  greater  part  of  this  might  have  been 
avoided,  by  having  the  negroes  clean  out  the  boxes  in  which  it 
had  fallen,  in  the  winter ;  but  they  seldom  take  this  trouble. 

In  some  orchards,  you  will  see  that  many  trees  have 
been  killed  by  fire.  The  wire-grass,  which  grew  among 
the  trees  the  previous  year,  is  frequently  set  on  fire,  either 
accidentally  or  purposely,  when  dead  and  dry,  in  the  spring. 
It  burns  slowly,  and  with  little  flame,  and  the  living  trees, 
the  bark  of  which  is  not  very  inflammable,  are  seldom  injured. 
But  where  a  tree  has  been  boxed,  and  the  chips  lie  about  it, 
these  take  fire,  and  burn  with  more  flame ;  so  that  frequently  the 
turpentine  in  the  box,  and  on  the  scarified  wood  above  it,  also 
takes  fire,  and  burns  with  such  intensity  as  to  kill  the  tree. 
The  danger  might  be  avoided  by  raking  away  the  chips  and 
leaves,  for  a  foot  or  two  about  the  roots ;  but  I  noAvhere  saw  this 


342  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

precaution  taken.  I  mention  these  things,  by  the  way,  as  further 
illustration  of  the  general  inefficient  direction  of  slave-labor ;  or  as 
indicating,  as  might  be  rather  claimed  by  the  owners,  that  the 
high  cost  of  the  labor  prevents  its  direction  to  these  minor 
points  of  economy. 

By  the  middle  of  March,  the  turpentine  is  flowing  abundantly, 
and  the  negroes  must  be  employed  in  hacking,  as  each  tree 
requires  to  be  freshly  scarified  once  in  a  week,  or  ten  days.  Soon 
afterwards,  it  is  necessary  to  commence  dipping,  or  the  removal 
of  the  turpentine  from  the  boxes  to  barrels.  There  are  two 
ways  of  arranging  the  labor  for  this  purpose  used  by  the  larger 
proprietors.  In  one,  all  the  negroes  employed  are  divided  into 
two  classes — •'  hackers"  and  "  dippers."  The  hackers  are  wholly 
employed  in  scarifying  the  trees.  A  task,  of  a  certain  number 
of  trees,  is  given  to  each,  which  he  is  required  to  go  over,  hack- 
ing each  tree,  once  in  seven  or  eight  days.  The  dippers  are 
constantly  employed  in  emptying  the  boxes,  as  they  fill  with 
turpentine.  The  other  way — and  this  is  more  common — is  to 
give  each  hand  a  task  of  trees,  each  of  which  he  is  required  to 
both  hack  and  dip  statedly.  Twenty-five  hundred  trees  give  a  man 
five  days'  employment  hacking,  and  one  day  dipping,  in  a  week. 
From  one  to  four  boxes  are  made  in  each  tree,  according  to 
its  size;  a  few  inches  of  bark  being  left  between  them.  The 
I  greater  number  of  trees,  from  which  turpentine  is  now  obtained, 
are  from  a  foot  to  eighteen  inches  in  diameter,  and  have  three 
boxes  each.  The  hacking  is  carried  on  year  after  year,  until, 
in  the  oldest  orchards,  it  is  extended  twelve  or  fifteen  feet,  and 
ladders  have  to  be  used  to  carry  it  further  up  the  trunks  of  the 
trees.  The  turpentine  flows  from  the  most  recent  hack,  down 
over  the  previously  scarified  wood  of  the  tree,  towards  the  box, 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  34o 

a  considerable  proportion  of  it  congealing  by  the  way,  and 
remaining  attached  to  the  wood.  From  this  adhering  portion,  a 
part  of  the  spirits  or  oil  has  evaporated  in  the  process  of  dry- 
ing ;  it  is,  therefore,  of  less  value  than  that  which  is  taken,  in  a 
more  liquid  condition,  from  the  box.  It  is  occasionally — per- 
haps but  once  a  year — scraped  off,  and  barreled  by  itself.  It 
is,  therefore,  known  in  market  as  "  scrape  ;"  while  that  which  is 
dipped  from  the  box,  and  which  is  of  considerably  higher  value, 
is  termed  "  dip."  The  flow  of  the  first  year,  having  but  a  small 
surface  of  wood  to  traverse,  and  being,  therefore,  less  exposed  to 
evaporation  than  the  flow  of  later  years,  is  of  higher  value  than 
the  ordinary  dip.  It  is  called  "  virgin  dip."  In  many  of  the 
orchards,  at  a  distance  from  market,  and  where,  of  course,  all 
classes  of  turpentine  are  of  less  value,  I  observed  that  the  trees 
had  never  been  scraped — the  proprietor  having  boxed  and  hacked 
more  trees  than  he  could  apply  force  enough  to  both  dip  and 
scrape.  The  dip  is  lessened,  however,  by  allowing  the  scrape  to 
accumulate ;  for  much  of  the  flow  is  thus  often  made  to  drop 
outside  of  the  box.  The  price  of  turpentine  being  now  much 
higher  than  usual,  many  of  the  small  proprietors  are  this  year 
scraping  their  trees,  that  have  not  scraped  before.  This  old 
"  scrape"  will  be  of  inferior  quality. 

DISTILLATION    OF   TURPENTINE. 

A  considerable  amount  of  turpentine  is  shipped  in  barrels  to 
Northern  ports,  where  it  is  distilled ;  a  larger  amount  is  distilled 
in  the  State.  The  proprietors  of  the  large  turpentine  orchards, 
themselves,  have  stills ;  and  those  collecting  but  a  small  quantity 
sell  to  them,  or  to  custom  distilleries,  owned  by  those  who  make 
distilling  alone  their  business. 


344 


OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 


The  stills  used  for  making  spirits  or  oil  of  turpentine  from 
the  crude  gum,  are  of  copper,  not  materially  different  in 
form  from  common  ardent-spirit  stills,  and  have  a  capacity  of 
from  five  to  twenty  barrels;  an  average  size  being,  perhaps, 
ten  barrels. 

nn 


The   forest   distilleries   are   usually  placed  in   a   ravine   or 

valley,  where  water  can  be  brought  to  them  in  troughs,  so  as 
to  flow,  at  an  elevation  of  fifteen  feet  from  the  ground,  into  the 
*  condensing  tank.  At  a  point  at  which  the  ground  will  decline 
from  it  in  one  direction,  the  still  is  set  in  a  brick  furnace.  A 
floor  or  scaffold  is  erected  on  a  level  with  the  bottom  of  the 
still-head,  and  a  roof  covers  all.  The  still-head  is  taken  off, 
and  barrels  of  turpentine,  full  of  rubbish  as  it  is  collected  by 
the  negroes,  are  emptied  in.  When  the  still  is  full,  or  nearly  so, 
the  still-head  is  put  on,  and  the  joint  made  tight  with  clay ;  fire 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  345 

is  made,  and  soon  a  small,  transparent  stream  of  spirits  begins 
to  flow  from  the  mouth  of  the  worm,  and  is  caught  directly  in 
the  barrel  in  which  it  finally  comes  to  market.  When  all  the 
spirits,  which  can  be  profitably  extracted,  are  thus  drawn  off,  the 
fire  is  raked  out  of  the  furnace,  a  spigot  is  drawn  from  a  spout 
at  the  bottom  of  the  still,  and  the  residuum  flows  out — a  dark, 
thick  fluid,  appearing,  as  it  runs,  like  molasses. 

EOSIN. 

This  residuum  is  resin,  or  the  rosin  of  commerce.  There  is 
not  a  sufficient  demand  for  rosin,  except  of  the  first  qualities,  to 
make  it  worth  transporting  from  the  inland  distilleries ;  it  is 
ordinarily,  therefore,  conducted  off  to  a  little  distance,  in  a 
wooden  trough,  and  allowed  to  flow  from  it  to  waste  upon  the 
ground.  At  the  first  distillery  I  visited,  which  had  been  in 
operation  but  one  year,  there  lay  a  congealed  pool  of  rosin, 
estimated  to  contain  over  three  thousand  barrels.  Its  appearance 
was  very  beautiful ;  firm  and  glair ;  varying  in  color,  and  glisten- 
ing like  polished  porphyry.  The  rosin  from  "  virgin  dip" 
turpentine,  only,  was  saved  here.  At  the  distilleries  on  the 
river-banks,  a  second  quality  is  also  saved,  while  a  poorer  de- 
scription is  still  let  run  to  waste.  When  it  is  intended  to 
save  the  rosin,  it  is  drawn  off  into  a  vat  of  water,  which 
separates  the  chips  and  other  rubbish,  that  were  contained- 
in  the  gum,  and  it  is  then  barreled  for  market. 

To  prevent  the  spirits  soaking  through  the  wood  and 
evaporating,  the  barrels  are  all  washed  on  the  inside  with 
glue.  They  are  made  as  carefully  as  possible,  and  are 
often  brought  from  the  North,  and  sold  at  three  or  four  dol- 
lars a-piece.  Notwithstanding  all  precaution,  the  waste  from 
15* 


346  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

leakage  and  evaporation  is  often  great,  owing  to  the  exceed- 
ingly   subtile    nature    of    the    fluid. 

The  turpentine  lands  that  I  saw  were  valued  at  from  $5 
to  $20  an  acre.  They  have  sometimes  been  sold  at  $2  an 
acre;  and  those  of  Georgia  and  Alabama  can  be  purchased, 
to -any  extent,  at  that  price.  From  500  to  1,000  trees  (or 
2,000  boxes),  I  judged,  stand  usually  upon  an  acre.  The 
quantity  of  turpentine  that  would  flow  from  these,  in  a  year, 
I  cannot  state  reliably.  According  to  some  statements  given 
me,  it  would  be  about  fourteen  barrels  of  dip,  and  two 
barrels  of  scrape.  Fourteen  barrels  of  dip  would  give,  in 
distillation,  two  barrels  of  spirits,  and  eight  of  resin. 

At  a  fifteen  barrel  still,  I  found  one  white  man  and  one  negro 
employed  under  the  oversight  of  the  owner.  It  kept  employed 
twenty-five  men  hacking  and  dipping;  running  twice,  that  is, 
using  thirty  barrels  crude  turpentine,  a  day.  Besides  these 
hands,  were  two  coopers,  and  several  wagoners.  The  wages 
of  ordinary  practiced  turpentine  hands  (slaves")  are  about  $120 
a  year,  with  board,  clothing,  etc.,  as  usual. 

A  North  Carolina  turpentine  orchard,  with  the  ordinary 
treatment,  lasts  fifty  years.  The  trees  are  subject  to  the 
attack  of  an  insect  which  rapidly  kills  them.  Those  most 
severely  hacked  are  chiefly  liable  to  this  danger. 

The  turpentine  business  is  considered  to  be  extremely  favor- 
able to  health  and  long  life.  It  is  sometimes  engaged  in  by 
persons  afflicted  with  pulmonary  complaints,  with  the  belief  that 
it  has  a  remedial  effect. 

When  the  original  long-leafed  pine  has  been  destroyed,  and 
the  ground  cultivated  a  few  years,  and  then  "  turned  out,"  a 
bastard  variety  springs  up,  which  grows  with  rapidity,,  but  is 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  347 

of  no  value  for  turpentine,  and  of  but  little  for  timber.  The 
true  variety,  ricb  in  turpentine,  is  of  very  slow  growth.  On 
one  trunk,  seven  inches  in  diameter,  I  counted  eighty-five 
rings.  Whether  there  will  be  a  renewed  spontaneous  growth 
of  the  true  long-leafed  pine,  where  they  are  allowed  to  gradu- 
ally decay  on  the  ground,  I  am  unable  to  say. 


Tar  is  an  extract  from  the  pine-wood  obtained  by  charring 
it.  It  is  made  wholly  from  the  heart  or  "  light  wood"  of  the 
long-leafed  pine,  which  is  split  into  billets  of  a  size  conveni- 
ent for  handling  and  arranging  in  the  tar-kiln.  Trees  which 
have  been  used  up  in  the  turpentine  business,  are  the  best 
to  use  for  making  tar.  The  billets  are  piled  in  a  conical 
heap,  which  is  covered  with  turf,  much  as  coal-pits  are  made 
at  the  North.  The  kiln  is  usually  made  upon  a  hillock,  and 
trenches  are  made  under  it,  having  a  mouth  a  little  below  it 
on  the  hill-side.  The  proper  burning  of  the  kiln  to  produce 
the  most  tar,  is  an  art  to  be  learned  by  practice.  It  is  made 
to  burn  very  slowly,  to  gradually  roast  out  the  juices  of  the 
pine,  so  that  they  will  run  down,  collect  in  the  trench,  and 
flow  out  at  its  mouth,  where,  in  the  commingled  condition 
known  as  tar,  they  are  ladled  into  barrels. 

This  is  an  exceedingly  slovenly  process,  the  tar  being 
mixed  with  sand,  and  collecting  other  impurities  as  it  flows 
through  the  kiln,  and  searches  a  way  out  on  and  through 
the  ground.  It  is  for  the  reason  that  it  is  prepared  with 
more  care,  so  as  to  be  free  from  the  admixture  of  sand,  that 
the  tar  of  Northern  Europe  always  stands  at  a  higher  value, 
and  competes  with  the  Carolina  tar,  even  in  our  own  ports. 


348  OUB     SLAVE     STATES. 

A  new  patent  process  of  roasting  the  pine  in  iron  ovens, 
the  fire  not  being  in  contact  with  it,  has  lately  been  intro- 
duced, and  gives  good  promise  of  removing  this  reproach. 
The  tar  is  said  to  be  of  much  superior  quality  and  to  be 
obtained  more  expeditiously  and  economically  than  by  the 
old  method. 

PITCH. 

Pitch  is  a  concentration  of  tar  obtained  by  boiling  it.  I 
was  unable  to  obtain  any  particulars  of  the  process  of  manu- 
facturing it. 

'    SLAVES    AND    OTHER    PEOPLE    IN    THE    TURPENTINE    FORESTS. 

The  negroes  employed  in  this  branch  of  industry,  seemed  to  me 
to  be  unusually  intelligent  and  cheerful.  Decidedly  they  are 
superior  in  every  moral  and  intellectual  respect  to  the  great  mass 
of  the  white  people  inhabiting  the  turpentine  forest.  Among 
the  latter  there  is  a  large  number,  I  should  think  a  majority, 
of  entirely  uneducated,  poverty-stricken  vagabonds.  I  mean 
by  vagabonds,  simply,  people  without  habitual,  definite  occu- 
pation or  reliable  means  of  livelihood.  They  are  poor,  hav- 
ing almost  no  property  but  their  own  bodies ;  and  the  use  of 
these,  that  is,  their  labor,  they  are  not  accustomed  to  hire 
out  statedly  and  regularly,  so  as  to  obtain  capital  by  wages, 
but  only  occasionally  by  the  day  or  job,  when  driven  to  it 
by  necessity.  A  family  of  these  people  will  commonly  hire, 
or  "  squat"  and  build,  a  little  log  cabin,  so  made  that  it  is  only 
a  shelter  from  rain,  the  sides  not  being  chinked,  and  having 
no  more  furniture  or  pretension  to  comfort  than  is  commonly 
provided  a  criminal  in  the  cell  of  a  prison.  They  will  cul- 
tivate  a  little    corn,   and    possibly   a    few  roods   of   potatoes, 


NORTH    CAROLINA. 


349 


cow-peas  and  coleworts.  They  will  own  a  few  swine,  that  find 
their  living  in  the  forest ;  and  pretty  certainly,  also,  a  rifle  and 
dogs;  and  the  men,  ostensibly,  occupy  most  of  their  time  in 
hunting. 


&&^^^^s^3^i^s=g 


A  gentleman  of  Fayetteville  told  me  that  he  had,  several 
times,  appraised,  under  oath,  the  whole  household  property  of 
families  of  this  class  at  less  than  $20.  If  they  have  need  of 
money  to  purchase  clothing,  etc.,  they  obtain  it  by  selling 
their  game  or  meal.  If  they  have  none  of  this  to  spare,  or  an 
insufficiency,  they  will  work  for  a  neighboring  farmer  for  a  few 
days,  and  they  usually  get  for  their  labor  fifty  cents  a  day, 
finding  themselves.  The  farmers  say,  that  they  do  not  like  to 
employ  them,  because  they  cannot  be  relied  upon  to  finish 
what  they  undertake,  or  to  work  according  to  directions;  and 


350  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

because,  being  white  men,  they  cannot  "drive"  them.  That 
is  to  say,  their  labor  is  even  more  inefficient  and  unmanage- 
able than  that  of  slaves. 

That  I  have  not  formed  an  exaggerated  estimate  of  the 
proportion  of  such  a  class,  will  appear  to  the  reader  more 
probable  from  the  testimony  of  a  pious  colporteur,  given 
before  a  public  meeting  in  Charleston,  in  February,  1855.  I 
quote  from  a  Charleston  paper's  report.      The  colporteur  had 

been   stationed  at  county,   N.   C. : — "  The  larger  portion 

of  the  inhabitants  seemed  to  be  totally  given  up  to  a  species 
of  mental  hallucination,  which  carried  them  captive  at  its 
will.  They  nearly  all  believed  implicitly  in  witchcraft,  and 
attributed  everything  that  happened,  good  or  bad,  to  the  agency 
of  persons  whom  they  supposed  possessed  of  evil  spirits." 

The  majority  of  what  I  have  termed  turpentine-farmers — 
meaning  the  small  proprietors  of  the  long-leafed  pine  forest 
land,  are  people  but  a  grade  superior,  in  character  or  condi- 
tion, to  these  vagabonds.  They  have  habitations  more  like 
houses — log-cabins,  commonly,  sometimes  chinked,  oftener  not— 
without  windows  of  glass,  but  with  a  few  pieces  of  substan- 
tial old-fashioned  heir-loom  furniture  ;  a  vegetable  garden,  in 
which,  however,  you  will  find  no  vegetable  but  what  they 
call  "  collards"  (colewort)  for  "  greens";  fewer  dogs  ;  more  swine, 
and  larger  clearings  for  maize,  but  no  better  crops  than  the 
poorer  class.  Their  property  is,  nevertheless,  often  of  con- 
siderable money  value,  consisting  mainly  of  negroes,  who,  as- 
sociating intimately  with  their  masters,  are  of  superior  intel- 
ligence to  the  slaves  of  the  wealthier  classes. 

The  larger  proprietors,  who  are  also  often  cotton  planters, 
cultivating  the  richer  low  lands,  are,  sometimes,  gentlemen  of 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  351 

good  estate — intelligent,  cultivated,  and  hospitable.     The  num- 
of  these,  however,  is  extremely  small. 

NORTH    CAROLINA    FISHERIES. SLAVE    FISHERMEN. 

The  shad  and  herring  fisheries  upon  the  sounds  and  inlets  of 
(he  North  Carolina  coast  are  an  important  branch  of  industry, 
and  a  source  of  considerable  wealth.  The  men  employed  in 
them  are  mainly  negroes,  slave  and  free ;  and  the  manner  in 
which  they  are  conducted  is  interesting,  and  in  some  respects 
novel. 

The  largest  sweep  seines  in  the  world  are  used.  The  gentle- 
man to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  the  most  of  my  information, 
was  the  proprietor  of  a  seine  over  two  miles  in  length.  It  was 
manned  by  a  force  of  forty  negroes,  most  of  whom  were  hired  at 
a  dollar  a  day,  for  the  fishing  season,  Avhich  usually  commences 
between  the  tenth  and  fifteenth  of  March,  and  lasts  fifty  days. 
In  favorable  years  the  profits  are  very  great.  In  extremely  un- 
favorable years,  many  of  the  proprietors  are  made  bankrupt. 

Cleaning,  curing  and  packing-houses  are  erected  on  the  shore, 
as  near  as  they  conveniently  may  be  to  a  point  on  the  beach 
suitable  for  drawing  the  seine.  Six  or  eight  windlasses,  worked 
by  horses,  are  fixed  along  the  shore,  on  each  side  of  this  point. 
There  are  two  large  seine-boats,  in  each  of  which  there  is  one 
captain,  two  seine-tenders,  and  eight  or  ten  oarsmen.  In  making 
a  cast  of  the  net,  one-half  of  it  is  arranged  on  the  stern  of  each 
of  the  boats,  which,  having  previously  been  placed  in  a  suitable 
position — perhaps  a  mile  off  shore,  in  front  of  the  buildings — 
are  rowed  from  each  other,  the  captains  steering,  and  the  seine- 
tenders  throwing  oft',  until  the  seine  is  all  cast  between  them. 
This  is  usually  done  in  such  a  way  that  it  describes  the  arc  of  a 


352  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

circle,  the  chord  of  which  is  diagonal  with  the  shore.  The 
hawsers  attached  to  the  ends  of  the  seine  are  brought  first  to  the 
outer  windlasses,  and  are  wound  in  by  the  horses.  As  the  ope- 
ration of  gathering  in  the  seine  occupies  several  hours,  the  boat- 
hands,  as  soon  as  they  have  brought  the  hawsers  to  the  shore, 
draw  their  boats  up,  and  go  to  sleep. 

As  the  wings  approach  the  shore,  the  hawsers  are  from  time 
to  time  carried  to  the  other  windlasses,  to  contract  the  sweep  of 
the  seine.  After  the  gaff  of  the  net  reaches  the  shore,  lines 
attached  toward  the  bunt  are  carried  to  the  windlasses,  and  the 
boats'  crews  are  awakened,  and  arrange  the  wing  of  the  seine,  as 
fast  as  it  comes  in,  upon  the  boat  again.  Of  course,  as  the  cast 
was  made  diagonally  with  the  shore,  one  wing  is  beached  before 
the  other.  By  the  time  the  fish  in  the  bunt  have  been  secured, 
both  boats  are  ready  for  another  cast,  and  the  boatmen  proceed 
to  make  it,  while  the  shore-gang  is  engaged  in  sorting  and  gut- 
ting the  "  take." 

My  informant,  who  had  $50,000  invested  in  his  fishing  estab- 
lishment, among  other  items  of  expenditure,  mentioned  that  he 
had  used  seventy  kegs  of  gunpowder  the  previous  year,  and 
amused  himself  for  a  few  moments  with  letting  me  try  to  con- 
jecture in  what  way  villainous  saltpetre  could  be  put  to  use  in 
taking  fish. 

There  is  evidence  of  a  subsidence  of  this  coast,  in  many 
places,  at  a  comparatively  recent  period ;  many  stumps  of  trees, 
evidently  standing  where  they  grew,  being  found  some  way 
below  the  present  surface,  in  the  swamps  and  salt  marshes. 
Where  the  formation  of  the  shore  and  the  surface,  or  the 
strength  of  the  currents  of  water,  which  have  flowed  over  the 
sunken  land,  has  been  such  as  to  prevent  a  later  deposit,  the 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  353 

stumps  of  great  cypress  trees,  not  in  the  least  decayed,  yet  pro- 
trude from  the  bottom  of  the  sounds.  These  would  obstruct  the 
passage  of  a  net,  and  must  be  removed  from  a  fishing-ground. 

The  operation  of  removing  them  is  carried  on  during  the  sum- 
mer, after  the  close  of  the  fishing  season.  The  position  of  a 
stump  having  been  ascertained  by  divers,  two  large  seine-boats 
are  moored  over  it,  alongside  each  other,  and  a  log  is  laid  across 
them,  to  which  is  attached,  perpendicularly,  between  the  boats,  a 
spar,  fifteen  feet  long.  The  end  of  a  chain  is  hooked  to  the  log, 
between  the  boats,  the  other  end  of  which  is  fastened  by  divers 
to  the  stump  which  it  is  wished  to  raise.  A  double-purchase 
tackle  leads  from  the  end  of  the  spar  to  a  ring-bolt  in  the  bows 
of  one  of  the  boats,  with  the  fall  leading  aft,  to  be  bowsed  upon 
by  the  crews.  The  mechanical  advantages  of  the  windlass,  the 
lever,  and  the  pulley  being  thus  combined,  the  chain  is  wound  on 
to  the  log,  until  either  the  stump  yields,  and  is  brought  to  the 
surface,  or  the  boats'  gunwales  are  brought  to  the  water's  edge. 

When  the  latter  is  the  case,  and  the  stump  still  remains  firm, 
a  new  power  must  be  applied.  A  spile,  pointed  with  iron,  six 
inches  in  diameter,  and  twenty  feet  long,  is  set  upon  the  stump 
by  a  diver,  who  goes  down  with  it,  and  gives  it  that  direction 
which,  in  his  judgment,  is  best,  and  driven  into  it  by  mauls  and 
sledges,  a  scaffold  being  erected  between  the  boats  for  men  to 
stand  on  while  driving  it.  In  very  large  stumps,  the  spile  is 
often  driven  till  its  top  reaches  the  water  ;  so  that  when  it  is  drawn 
out,  a  cavity  is  left  in  the  stump,  ten  feet  in  depth.  A  tube  is 
now  used,  which  is  made  by  welding  together  three  musket- 
barrels,  with  a  breech  at  one  end,  in  which  is  the  tube  of  a  per- 
cussion breech,  with  the  ordinary  position  of  the  nipple  reversed, 
so  that  when  it  is  screwed  on  with  a  detonating  cap,  the  latter 


354  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

will  protrude  within  the  barrel.  This  breech  is  then  inserted 
within  a  cylindrical  tin  box,  six  inches  in  diameter,  and  varying 
in  length,  according  to  the  supposed  strength  of  the  stump ;  and 
soap  or  tallow  is  smeared  about  the  place  of  insertion,  to  make 
it  water-tight.     The  box  contains  several  pounds  of  gunpowder. 

The  long  iron  tube  is  elevated,  and  the  diver  goes  down  again, 
and  guides  it  into  the  hole  in  the  stump,  with  the  canister  in  his 
arms.  It  has  reached  the  bottom — the  diver  has  come  up,  and 
is  drawn  into  one  of  the  boats — an  iron  rod  is  inserted  in  the 
mouth  of  the  tube — all  hands  crouch  low,  and  hold  hard — the 
rod  is  let  go — crack ! — whoo — oosch  !  The  sea  swells,  boils, 
and  breaks  upward.  If  the  boats  do  not  rise  with  it,  they  must 
sink  ;  if  they  rise,  and  the  chain  does  not  break,  the  stump  must 
rise  with  them.  At  the  same  moment  the  heart  of  cypress  is 
riven ;  its  furthest  rootlets  quiver ;  the  very  earth  trembles,  and 
loses  courage  to  hold  it ;  "  up  comes  the  stump,  or  down  go 
the  niggers !" 

If  I  owned  a  yacht,  I  think  I  would  make  a  trip  to  Currituck 
next  summer,  to  witness  this  Titanic  dentistry.  Who  could 
have  invented  it  ?  Not  a  Carolinian  ;  it  is  too  ingenious  :  not  a 
Yankee ;  it  is  too  reckless  :  not  a  sailor ;  it  is  too  hard  upon  the 
boats. 

The  success  of  the  operation  evidently  depends  mainly  on  the 
discretion  and  skill  of  the  diver.  My  informant,  who  thought 
that  he  removed  last  summer  over  a  thousand  stumps,  using  for 
the  purpose  seventy  kegs  of  gunpowder,  employed  several  divers, 
all  of  them  negroes.  Some  of  them  could  remain  under  water, 
and  work  there  to  better  advantage  than  others ;  but  all  were  ad- 
mirably skillful,  and  this,  much  in  proportion  to  the  practice  and 
experience  they  had  had.    They  wear,  when  diving,  three  or  four 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  355 

pairs  of  flannel  drawers  and  shirts.  Nothing  is  required  of  them 
when  they  are  not  wanted  to  go  to  the  bottom,  and,  while  the 
other  hands  are  at  work,  they  may  lounge,  or  go  to  sleep  in  the 
boat,  which  they  do,  in  their  wet  garments.  Whenever  a  diver 
displays  unusual  hardihood,  skill,  or  perseverance,  he  is  re- 
warded with  whisky ;  or,  as  they  are  commonly  allowed,  while 
diving,  as  much  whisky  as  they  want,  with  money.  Each  of 
them  would  generally  get  every  day  from  quarter  to  half  a-dollar 
in  this  way,  above  the  wages  paid  for  them,  according  to  the 
skill  and  industry  with  which  they  had  worked.  On  this 
account,  said  my  informant,  "  the  harder  the  work  you  give  them 
to  do,  the  better  they  like  it."  His  divers  very  frequently  had 
intermittent  fevers,  but  would  very  rarely  let  this  keep  them  out 
of  their  boats.  Even  in  the  midst  of  a  severe  "shake,"  they 
would  generally  insist  that  they  were  "  well  enough  to  dive." 

What!  slaves  eager  to  work,  and  working  cheerfully,  earn- 
estly and  skillfully  %  Even  so.  Being  for  the  time  managed  as 
freemen,  their  ambition  stimulated  by  wages,  suddenly  they,  too, 
reveal  sterling  manhood,  and  honor  their  Creator. 

SCOTCH    HIGHLANDERS. IMMIGRATION. 

In  the  vicinity  of  Fayetteville,  there  are  many  Scotch  High- 
landers. The  emigration  of  these  people  to  North  Carolina 
commenced  in  the  early  Colony  days,  and  has  been  continued, 
at  intervals,  to  the  present  time.  They  come  direct,  in  a 
small  class  of  vessels,  to  Wilmington.* 

Very  few  Highlanders  come  to  New  York,  or  to  other 
parts  of  the  United  States ;  the  largest  proportion  of  those  emi- 

*  There  is  a  credible  tradition  that  Flora  Macdonald  once  lived  in  North 
Carolina. 


i 


356  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

grating,  arrive  at  Quebec,  and  remain  in  Canada.  In  this 
they  are  led  simply  by  their  clannishness ;  like  sheep,  they 
follow  one  another  without  looking  right  or  left  for  an  easier 
leap;  the  stream  once  started,  there  is  no  diverting  it.  I 
remember  to  have  found  the  Highlanders  at  home  familiar 
with  the  names  of  districts  and  towns  in  Canada,  though 
they  had  no  knowledge  whatever  of  the  United  States,  and 
used  the  names  Canada  and  America  synonymously.  Prob- 
ably, in  some  districts  of  the  Highlands,  no"  one  knows  of 
any  other  port  in  America  than  Wilmington.  You  frequently 
fiud  people  who  can  speak  Gaelic,  in  North  Carolina;  and, 
sometimes,  a  small  settlement  where  it  is  the  common  tongue : 
there  are  even  one  or  two  churches  in  the  State,  in  Avhich 
the  services  are  performed  in  Gaelic. 

The  immigrants  of  the  present  generation  have,  nearly  all, 
come  to  Fayetteville.  Most  of  them  are  very  poor,  and  ob- 
tain employment  as  laborers,  as  soon  as  they  can  get  it,  after 
their  arrival.  In  a  year  or  two,  they  will  have  saved  money 
enough  from  their  wages  to  purchase  a  few  acres  of  piny- 
wood  land,  upon  which  they  raise  a  cabin,  make  a  clearing, 
and  go  to  raising  corn  and  a  family.  They  are  distinguished 
for  frugality  and  industry ;  and,  unless  they  are  very  intempe- 
rate— as  too  many  of  them  are — are  certain  in  a  few  years 
to  acquire  money  enough  to  buy  a  negro,  which  they  are  said 
to  be  invariably  ambitious  to  possess.  Before  they  die,  they 
will  have  got  a  family  or  two  of  young  negroes  about  them, 
to  be  divided  as  a  patrimony  among  their  children.  With  a 
moderate  competence  they  are  content,  and  seldom  become 
wealthy.  Their  children  do  not  appear,  generally,  to  retain 
their  thrifty  habits.     I   saw  a   number  of  girls,   of  Highland 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  357 

blood,  employed  in  a  cotton  factory  near  Fayetteville.  In 
modesty,  cleanliness,  and  neatness  of  apparel,  though  evidently 
poor,  they  certainly  compared  favorably  with  the  girls  em- 
ployed in  a  cotton  mill  that  I  visited  near  Glasgow,  a  few 
years  ago ;  but  the  proprietor  told  me  that  they  very  seldom 
laid  up  anything,  and  spent  the  greater  part  of  their  earn- 
ings very  foolishly,  as  fast  as  they  received  them. 

A  young  man,  employed  in  this  factory,  to  whom  the  pro- 
prietor, having  told  me  he  was  more  intelligent  and  trust- 
worthy than  most  of  his  class,  had  introduced  me,  finding 
that  I  was  from  the  North,  voluntarily  told  me  that  Slavery 
was  a  great-  weight  upon  poor  people  here,  and  he  wished 
that  he  lived  in  a  Free  State. 

WAGONERS. 

Having  observed,  from  my  room  in  the  hotel  at  Fayetteville, 
a  number  of  remarkable,  bright  lights,  I  walked  out,  about 
eleven  o'clock,  in  the  direction  in  which  they  had  appeared, 
and  found,  upon  the  edge  of  an  old-field,  near  the  town,  a 
camp  of  wagoners,  with  half-a-dozen  fires,  around  some  of 
which  were  clustered  groups  of  white  men  and  women  and 
negroes  cooking  and  eating  their  suppers  (black  and  white 
from  the  same  kettle,  in  many  cases),  some  singing  Methodist 
songs,  and  some  listening  to  a  banjo  or  fiddle-player.  A  still 
larger  number  appeared  to  be  asleep,  generally  lying  under 
low  tents,  about  as  large  as  those  used  by  the  French  soldier. 
There  were  thirty  or  forty  great  wagons,  with  mules,  cattle, 
or  horses,  feeding  from  troughs  set  upon  their  poles.  The  group- 
ing of  all  among  some  old  sycamore  trees,  with  the  fantastic 
shadows  and  wavering  lights,  the  free  flames  and  black  brood- 


358 


OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 


ing  smoke  of  the  pitch-pine  fires,  produced  a  most  interesting 
and  attractive  spectacle,  and  detained  me  long  in  admiration. 
I  could  easily  imagine  myself  to  be  on  the  Oregon  or  California 
trail,  a  thousand  miles  from  the  realm  of  civilization — not 
readily  realize  that  I  was  within  the  limits  of  one  of  the  oldest 
towns  on  the  American  continent. 


■   : 


8S»#t 

■r 

HP 

SfBtP" 


.  '"  '/••  \  ,7 7  7; 


These  were  the  farmers  of  the  distant  highland  districts, 
and  their  slaves,  come  to  market  with  their  produce.  Next 
morning  I  counted  sixty  of  their  great  wagons  in  the  main 
street  of  the  little  town.  They  would  generally  hold,  in  the 
body,  as  much  as  seventy-five  bushels  of  grain,  were  very 
strongly  built,  and  drawn  by  from  two  to  six  horses ;  the 
near  wheeler  always  having  a  large  Spanish  saddle  on  his 
back,   for  their  driver.     The  merchants  stood  in  the  doors  of 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  359 

their  stores,  or  walked  out  into  the  street  to  observe  their 
contents — generally  of  corn,  meal,  flour  or  cotton — and  to 
traffic  for  them.  I  observed  that  the  negroes  often  took  part 
in  the  bargaining,  and  was  told  by  a  merchant,  that  both  the 
selling  of  the  produce,  and  the  selection  and  purchase  of  goods 
for  the  farmer's  family,  was  often  left  entirely  to  them. 

Several  of  the  wagons  had  come,  I  found,  from  a  hundred 
miles  distant ;  and  one  of  them  from  beyond  the  Blue  Eidge, 
nearly  two  hundred  miles.  In  this  tedious  way,  until  lately, 
nearly  all  the  commerce  between  the  back  country  and  the 
river  towns  and  sea-ports  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  has 
been  carried  on,  strong  teams  of  horses  toiling  on,  less  than 
a  score  of  miles  a  day,  with  the  lumbering  wagons,  the  roads 
running  through  a  sparsely  settled  district  of  clay  soil,  and  much 
worse,  even,  than  those  of  the  sandy  lands  I  have  described. 
Every  night,  foul  or  fair,  the  driver  and  attendants,  often 
including  the  farmer  himself,  and  part  of  his  family,  camp 
out  on  the  road-side. 

BOAT-TRANSPORTATION. 

At  Gaston  I  had  seen  a  number  of  long,  narrow,  canoe-like 
boats,  of  light  draft,  in  which  the  produce  of  the  country  along 
the  head  waters  of  the  Eoanoke  was  brought  to  market.  They 
were  generally  manned  by  three  men  each,  who  were  sheltered 
at  night  under  a  hood  of  canvas,  stretched  upon  poles,  in  the 
stern  of  the  boat.  The  mouth  of  this  hood  opened  upon  a  bed 
of  clay,  laid  upon  the  boat's  bottom,  on  which  a  fire  was  made, 
that  would  keep  them  warm,  and  cook  their  food.  An  equally 
picturesque  scene  with  that  of  the  wagon  camp  was  a  collection 
of  these  boats,  moored  at  night  under  the  steep  river  bank,  the 


360  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

negroes  reclining  under  the  dusky  hoods,  or  sitting  on  the  gun- 
wales, cooking  and  eating  their  hoe-cake,  smoking,  singing,  or 
telling  of  their  adventures  on  the  passage.  The  cargoes  of  these 
boats  -were  chiefly  composed  of  meal,  hides,  and  tobacco,  and  at 
Gaston  they  were  transhipped,  by  rail,  to  some  of  the  Virginia 
ports. 

TOBACCO  ROLLERS. 

Until  within  a  recent  period,  much  tobacco  has  been  brought 
to  market,  from  the  more  remote  districts  of  North  Carolina  and 
Virginia,  by  a  very  rude  method,  called  "  rolling,"  which  was 
performed  in  this  wise.  Felloes,  like  those  of  cart-wheels,  were 
hewn  with  an  ax,  and  fitted  to  a  cask  of  tobacco,  at  a  little  dis- 
tance each  side  the  bilge ;  holes  were  bored  with  an  auger, 
and  long  wooden  pins  driven  in,  fastening  them  to  the  cask ;  a 
large  hole  was  then  bored  in  the  middle  of  each  head,  and  a  spar 
driven  through,  which  formed  an  axle-tree.  To  this,  long  poles, 
used  as  shafts,  were  attached,  holes  being  bored  through  the  ends 
of  them,  which  slipped  over  the  axle-tree,  and  they  were  secured 
by  linch-pins.  One  horse  was  tackled  in  between  the  poles,  and 
another  attached  tandem,  before  him.  On  the  leader's  back,  a 
kettle  and  a  bag  of  meal  were  hung ;  and  on  the  shaft-horse  was 
strapped  a  blanket,  or  bear-skin,  which  served  as  a  saddle  for  the 
driver  by  day,  and  a  bed-cover  by  night.  Small  farmers  them- 
selves often  brought  in  their  tobacco  in  this  way ;  but  there  were 
also  a  set  of  men  who  made  it  their  principal  occupation,  and 
whose  calling  was  that  of  "tobacco-rollers."  They  contracted 
with  the  large  planters  to  take  their  whole  crop  to  the  market- 
town  at  a  certain  price,  furnishing  horses,  felloes,  etc.,  them- 
selves.    It  was  their  custom  to  so  arrange  their  starting,  that 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  361 

many  would  come  together  on  the  road,  and  so  proceed, 
making  a  considerable  camp,  wherever  they  stopped  for  the 
night;  and  many  such  companies,  by  a  previous  agreement, 
would  arrive  in  the  towns  together.  A  hard  set  they  must  have 
been — for  the  citizens  now  tell  how,  when  they  were  young,  all 
quiet  housekeepers  were  kept  in  a  state  of  excited  alarm  during 
the  seasons  when  the  tobacco-rollers  were  in  town ;  and  they 
well  remember  with  what  respect  and  consideration  they  were 
treated  by  all  discreet  people ;  for  the  quarrel  of  one,  was  made 
that  of  the  whole  body. 

IMPROVED  MEANS  OP  TRANSPORT. 

Eail-roads  and  canals,  running  westward  from  the  navigable 
water  at  Baltimore,  Kichmond,  Petersburg,  and  Charleston,  now 
shorten  the  distance  to  which  it  is  necessary  for  the  horse  trans- 
portation of  the  products  of  much  of  the  upper  country  to  be 
earned.  A  large  district  of  Central  and  Western  North  Caro- 
lina, however,  is  still  unpierced  by  either  rail-road  or  serviceable 
canal ;  and  much  of  this  finds  its  readiest  communication  with 
the  sea,  and  by  that  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  by  the  Cape  Fear 
river.  Fayetteville  is  the  point  of  transfer  from  wagon  to 
boat,  being  at  the  head  of  navigation. 

In  1820,  a  company  was  chartered,  to  make  the  river  above 
Fayetteville  navigable  for  boats,  with  a  capital  of  $100,000. 
About  $80,000  were  raised  and  spent,  probably  without  good 
judgment ;  certainly  without  accomplishing  anything ;  and  this 
failure  operated  for  a  long  time  to  discourage  the  further  em- 
ployment of  capital  (which  is  much  less  concentrated  in  this  than 
in  the  adjoining  States),  in  public  works.     The  Cape  Fear  river 

improvements  have  been  persevered  in  with  fluctuating  energy  at 
16 


362  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

different  periods,  and  are  now  directed  by  the  State.  The  main 
object  in  view  at  present,  is  to  obtain  a  boat-transportation  from 
certain  coal-beds  to  the  ocean.  The  coal  is  bituminous — some 
of  it  of  a  very  desirable  quality,  would  be  readily  and  cheaply 
mined,  and  the  beds  are  of  exhaustless  extent.  If  it  could  be 
brought  from  the  mines  to  the  ocean  with  but  one  transhipment, 
and  untaxed  with  heavy  tolls,  it  could,  without  doubt,  be  sold 
with  a  good  profit  in  New  York  and  New  England.  It  is  calcu- 
lated, also,  that  it  would  bear  rail-road  freight  to  Fayetteville, 
and  thence  two  handlings  to  get  it  to  sea ;  and  for  this  purpose 
a  rail-road  had  been  projected,  and  -a  charter  obtained,  shortly 
before  my  visit.  Gentlemen  interested  told  me  then,  that  they 
had  scarcely  any  hopes  of  getting  a  sufficient  amount  of  stock 
taken  to  proceed,  but  they  should  try  to  get  a  loan  from  the  cor- 
porations of  Fayetteville  and  Wilmington.  When  I  returned 
through  Western  North  Carolina,  some  months  afterwards,  I  was 
informed  that  when  about  one-sixth  of  the  amount  of  stock 
required  to  be  taken  by  a  certain  date,  before  any  use  could  be 
made  of  the  charter,  had  been  subscribed  for,  and  when  it  was 
thought  no  more  subscriptions  could  be  obtained,  a  stranger  had 
suddenly  subscribed,  in  behalf  of  certain  New  Yorkers,  for  all  the 
remainder.  It  was  reported  to  be  the  design  of  these  capi- 
talists, if  it  should  be  found  practicable  upon  careful  survey, 
to  carry  the  road  to  a  point  on  the  coast  where  they  had 
discovered  a  neglected  harbor,  with  great  natural  advantages  for 
commerce,  the  charter  having,  by  accident,  been  so  loosely 
worded  as  to  admit  of  this  change  in  the  terminus  of  the  road. 
The  New  Yorkers  were  supposed  to  have  made  large  purchases 
of  land  in  the  vicinity  of  this  new  harbor,  and  probably  at  other 
points,  where  the  value  of  land  would  be  favorably  influenced  by 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  363 

the  work.  How  much  truth  there  was  in  this  report,  I  do  not 
know,  but  my  informant,  having  just  come  from  Fayetteville,  told 
me  that  the  people  there  believed  it,  and  were  in  transports  of 
delight  with  the  prospect  it  afforded  them.  Not  one  word  was 
said  about  the  "  impudent  intermeddling  of  Northerners,"  not  the 
slightest  indignation  expressed,  that  the  "profits  of  their  own 
legitimate  business  should  thus  be  stolen  from  them  by  the  mer- 
cenary New  Yorkers." 

Paragraphs  like  the  following  may  often  be  seen  in  juxtapo- 
sition, in  the  Southern  papers  : 

"  The  Farmersville  coal  field,  on  Deep  river,  Chatham  county,  N.  C. 
which  was  purchased  some  four  years  ago  for  $8,000,  was  sold  last  week 
to  a  Northern  Company,  for  $91,000,  cash.  There  are  900  acres  of 
land  in  the  tract."  

*  *  -:<-  *  «  j£  is  piain  that  a  new  and  glorious  destiny  awaits  the 
South,  and  beckons  us  onward  to  a  career  of  independence.  Shall  we 
train  and  discipline  our  energies  for  the  coming  crisis,  or  shall  we  con- 
tinue the  tributary  and  dependent  vassals  of  Nortliern  brokers  and  money- 
cliangers  1  Now  is  the  time  for  the  South  to  begin  in  earnest  the  work 
of  self-development !  Now  is  the  time  to  break  asunder  the  fetters  of 
commercial  subjection,  and  to  prepare  for  that  more  complete  independ- 
ence that  awaits  us !" — Rich?nond  Enquirer. 

A  rail-road  from  Charlotte  to  Ealeigh,  from  which  the  line 
to  navigable  waters  is  already  complete,  is  now  building,  and 
will  much  shorten  the  necessary  wagoning  of  produce  to  market 
from  the  central  district  of  the  State,  and  will,  doubtless,  stimu- 
late a  greatly  increased  production. 

The  advantages  offered  by  rail-roads,  to  the  farmers  of 
inland  districts,  are  strikingly  shown  by  the  following  fact: 
A  gentleman,  near  Ealeigh,  who  had  a  quantity  of  wheat  to 
dispose  of,  seeing  it  quoted  at  high  prices,  in  a  paper  of  Pe- 
tersburg, Va.,  and  seeing,  at  the  same  time,  the  advertisement 


364  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

of  a  commission-house  there,  wrote  to  the  latter,  making  an 
offer  of  it.  The  next  day  he  received  a  reply,  by  mail,  and 
by  the  train  a  bundle  of  sacks,  in  which  he  immediately  for- 
warded the  wheat,  and,  by  the  following  return  mail,  received 
his  pay,  at  the  rate  of  $1  20  a  bushel,  the  top  price  of  the 
winter.  At  the  same  time,  only  forty  miles  from  where  he 
lived,  off  the  line  of  the  rail-road,  wheat  was  selling  at  60 
cents  a  bushel.  There  was  one  county,  during  the  time  I 
was  in  North  Carolina,  to  and  through  which  the  roads  were 
absolutely  impassable,  and  out  of  which,  I  was  told,  no  intelli- 
gence had  been  received,  at  the  capitol,  for  more  than  a  month. 
It  is  not,  therefore,  incredible  that  it  should  cost  60  cents 
to  move  a  bushel  of  wheat  forty  miles. 

WAGON    COMPETITION   WITH    RAIL-ROADS. 

Kail-roads  do  not,  however,  so  readily  and  entirely  change 
the  channels  in  which  farmers  have  been  accustomed  for  a 
long  time  to  float  their  trade,  especially  in  thinly  settled  dis- 
tricts, as  might  be  expected.  I  was  told  of  a  farmer  who 
persisted  in  wagoning  his  produce  one  hundred  miles,  mak- 
ing several  trips  during  the  winter  to  do  so,  for  several  years 
after  he  had  the  opportunity  of  using  a  cheap  and  direct 
communication,  with  a  better  market,  by  rail-road.  The  farmer, 
unaccustomed  to  the  usual  mercantile  forms,  shrinks  from  them, 
and  is  afraid  to  deal  in  a  large  way.  He  does  not  like  to  trust 
agents,  particularly  strangers  at  a  distance,  and  many  in  North 
Carolina  are  unable  to  deal  at  all  by  correspondence.  He  enjoys 
much  more,  after  the  Fall  plowing  is  done,  and  the  horses  are 
no  longer  required  for  field-work,  to  hitch  them  to  the  big 
wagan,  load  it  with  a  little  of  everything  he  has  made,  and 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  365 

bring  it  to  town,  under  his  own  guard  and  guidance,  camping 
o'nights,  on  the  road ;  and  then,  to  talk  over  the  news  of  the 
year,  and  trade  with  his  old  town  cronies,  as  his  father  used  to 
when  he  was  a  boy,  and  he  began  to  go  down  with  him. 
Then,  with  some  new  store  goods  for  his  family  and  his 
"people;"  molasses,  sugar,  and  coffee,  and  a  new  coffee-mill, 
or  other  Down-east  notion,  to  return  leisurely  as  he  went, 
so  that,  when  he  reaches  home,  two  or  three  weeks'  absence 
shall  make  his  arrival  something  of  an  event. 

PLANK-ROADS. 

Plank-roads,  it  will  be  obvious,  from  these  considerations, 
are  admirably  adapted  to  all  the  circumstances  of  this  country. 
They  suit  the  habits  of  the  people,  and  the  value  of  land  be- 
ing small,  and  the  country  heavily  timbered,  they  may  be  built 
at  a  low  cost.  On  them  the  farmer  may  drive  his  wagon,  as 
he  has  been  accustomed  in  the  Winter,  but  carrying  double 
his  usual  load,  and  in  less  time,  and  with  much  less  liability 
to  accidents. 

The  first  plank-road  in  the  State  of  New  Tork  was  laid, 
I  believe,  in  1844,  and  in  1846  there  were  several  in  opera- 
tion ;  and  the  public,  generally,  began  to  be  informed  of 
their  mode  of  construction  and  their  advantages. 

It  is  creditable  to  the  citizens  of  North  Carolina,  that  they 
so  soon  appreciated  the  peculiar  advantages  offered  them  in 
the  invention,  and  took  measures  to  avail  themselves  of  it. 
In  1847  an  engineer  was  procured  from  New  York,  and,  un- 
der his  direction,  a  plank-road  commenced,  running  west- 
wardly  from  Fayetteville,  into  the  middle  of  the  productive 
region  I  have  referred  to. 


366  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

The  road  so  commencing,  now  forms  a  great  trunk  road, 
running  northwest  more  than  a  hundred  miles.  From  this 
trunk  there  are  many  laterals,  drawing  from  districts  which 
in  the  winter  season  are  almost  inaccessible  by  the  old  earth 
roads.  The  plank-roads  are  as  good  in  winter,  when  the 
farmer  has  leisure  to  drive  to  market,  as  they  are  in  summer ; 
and  he  can  take  upon  them  a  much  heavier  load,  thirty-five 
miles  a  day,  than  he  formerly  wore  out  his  horses  and  exhausted 
his  patience  to  drag  seventeen.  So  well  are  the  advantages 
appreciated  in  the  State,  that  over  forty  new  companies,  for 
building  plank-roads,  have  been  incorporated  by  one  legis- 
lature. 

NORTH    CAROLINA    CHARACTER. 

North  Carolina  has  a  proverbial  reputation  for  the  igno- 
rance and  torpidity  of  her  people ;  being,  in  this  respect,  at 
the  head  of  the  Slave  States.  I  do  not  find  the  reason  of 
this  in  any  innate  quality  of  the  popular  mind ;  but,  rather, 
in  the  circumstances  under  which  it  finds  its  development. 
Owing  to  the  general  poverty  of  the  soil  in  the  Eastern  part 
of  the  State,  and  to  the  almost  exclusive  employment  of  slave- 
labor  on  the  soils  productive  of  cotton;  owing,  also,  to  the 
difficulty  and  expense  of  reaching  market  with  bulky  produce 
from  the  interior  and  western  districts,  population  and  wealth 
is  more  divided  than  in  the  other  Atlantic  States ;  industry  is 
almost  entirely  rural,  and  there  is  but  little  communication 
or  concert  of  action  among  the  small  and  scattered  proprie- 
tors of  capital.  For  the  same  reason,  the  advantages  of 
education  are  more  difficult  to  be  enjoyed,  the  distance  at 
which  families    reside  apart  preventing  children  from  coming 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  367 

together  in  such  numbers  as  to  give  remunerative  employment 
to  a  teacher.  The  teachers  are,  generally,  totally  unfitted  for 
their  business ;  young  men,  as  a  clergyman  informed  me,  them- 
selves not  only  unadvanced  beyond  the  lowest  knowledge  of  the 
elements  of  primary  school  learning,  but  often  coarse,  vulgar, 
and  profane  in  their  language  and  behavior,  who  take  up  teach- 
ing as  a  temporary  business,  to  supply  the  demand  of  a  neigh- 
borhood of  people  as  ignorant  and  uncultivated  as  themselves. 

The  native  white  population  of  North  Carolina  is,  .  550,267 

The  whole  white  population  under  20  years,  is,       .        .  301,106 

Leaving  white  adults  over  20, 249,161 

Of  these  there  are  natives  who  cannot  read  and  write,     .      73,226* 

Being  more  than  one  fourth  of  the  native  white  adults. 

\*  SLAVERY  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

iBut  the  aspect  of  North  Carolina  with  regard  to  slavery, 
is,  in  some  respects,  less  lamentable  than  that  of  Vir- 
ginia. There  is  not  only  less  bigotry  upon  the  subject, 
and  more  freedom  of  conversation,  „  but  I  saw  here,  in 
the  institution,  more  of  patriarchal  character  than  in  any 
other  State.  The  slave  more  frequently  appears  as  a  family 
servant — a  member  of  his  master's  family,  interested  with 
him  in  his  fortune,  good  or  bad.  ( This  is  a  result  of  the 
less  concentration  of  wealth  in  families  or  individuals,  occasioned 
by  the  circumstances  I  have  described.^  Slavery  thus  loses  much 
of  its  inhumanity,  /fit  is  still  questionable,  however,  if,  as  the 
subject  race  approaches  civilization,  the  dominant  race  is  not 
proportionately  detained  in  its  onward  progress.  \  One  is  forced 
often  to  question,  too,  in  viewing  slavery  in  this  aspect,  whether 
humanity  and  the    accumulation  of  wealth,    the   prosperity  of 

*  Official  Census  Report,  pp.  309, 1299,  317. 


368  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

the  master,   and  the  happiness  and  improvement  of  the  sub- 
ject, are  not  in  some  degree  incompatible. 


CAPE    FEAR   RIVER. 

I  left  Fayetteville  in  a  steam-boat  (advertised  for  8  o'clock, 
left  at  8.45)  bound  down  Cape  Fear  river  to  Wilmington.  A 
description  of  the  river,  with  incidents  of  the  passage,  will  serve 
to  show  the  character  of  most  of  the  navigable  streams  of  the 
cotton  States,  flowing  into  the  Atlantic  and  the  Gulf,  and  of 
the  manner  of  their  navigation. 

The  water  was  eighteen  feet  above  its  lowest  summer  stages; 
the  banks  steep,  thirty  feet  high  from  the  present  water  surface — 
from  fifty  to  one  hundred  feet  apart — and  covered  with  large 
trees  and  luxuriant  vegetation ;  the  course  crooked ;  the  current 
very  rapid ;  the  trees  overhanging  the  banks,  and  frequently 
falling  into  the  channel — making  the  navigation  hazardous. 
The  river  is  subject  to  very  rapid  rising.  The  master  told  me 
that  he  had  sometimes  left  his  boat  aground  at  night,  and,  on 
returning  in  the  morning,  found  it  floating  in  twenty-five  feet 
water,  over  the  same  spot.  The  difference  between  the  extremes 
of  low  stages  and  floods  is  as  much  as  seventy  feet.  In  sum- 
mer, there  are  sometimes  but  eighteen  inches  of  water  on  the 
bars :  the  boat  I  was  in  drew  but  fourteen  inches,  light.  She 
was  a  stern-wheel  craft — the  boiler  and  engine  (high  pressure) 
being  placed  at  opposite  ends,  to  balance  weights.  Her  burden 
was  three  hundred  barrels,  or  sixty  tons  measurement.  This  is 
the  character  of  most  of  the  boats  navigating  the  river — of 
which  there  are  now  twelve.  Larger  boats  are  almost  useless 
in  summer,  from  their  liability  to  ground ;  and  even  the  smaller 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  369 

ones,  at  low  stages  of  water,  carry  no  freight,  but  are  employed 
to  tow  up  "flats,"  or  shallow  barges.  At  this  season  of  the 
year,  however,  the  steamboats  are  loaded  close  to  the  water's 
edge. 

The  bulk  of  our  freight  was  turpentine ;  and  the  close  prox- 
imity of  this  to  the  furnaces  suggested  a  danger  fully  equal  to 
that  from  snags  or  grounding.  On  calling  the  attention  of  a 
fellow-passenger  to  it,  he  told  me  that  a  friend  of  his  was  once 
awakened  from  sleep,  while  lying  in  a  berth  on  one  of  these 
boats,  by  a  sudden,  confused  sound.  Thinking  the  boiler  had 
burst,  he  drew  the  bed-clothing  over  his  head,  and  laid  quiet,  to 
avoid  breathing  the  steam ;  until,  feeling  the  boat  ground,  he  ran 
out,  and  discovered  that  she  was  on  fire  near  the  furnace.  Hav- 
ing some  valuable  freight  near  by,  which  he  was  desirous  to 
save,  and  seeing  no  immediate  danger,  though  left  alone  on  the 
boat,  he  snatched  a  bucket,  and,  drawing  water  from  alongside, 
applied  it  with  such  skill  and  rapidity  as  soon  to  quench  the 
flames,  and  eventually  to  entirely  extinguish  the  fire.  Upon  the 
return  of  the  crew,  a  few  repairs  were  made,  steam  was  got  up 
again,  and  the  boat  proceeded  to  her  destination  in  safety.  He 
afterwards  ascertained  that  three  hundred  kegs  of  gunpowder 
were  stowed  beneath  the  deck  that  had  been  on  fire — a  circum- 
stance which  sufficiently  accounted  for  the  panic-flight  of  the 
crew. 

WOODING-TJP. 

Soon  after  leaving,  we  passed  the  Zephyr,  wooding-up :    an 

hour  later,  our  own  boat  was  run  to  the  bank,  men  jumped  from 

her    fore  and  aft,  and   fastened   head  and    stern  lines   to  the 

trees,  and  we  also  commenced  wooding. 
16* 


370  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

The  trees  had  been  cut  away  so  as  to  leave  a  clear  space  to 
the  top  of  the  bank,  which  was  some  fifty  feet  from  the  boat, 
and  moderately  steep.  Wood,  cut,  split,  and  piled  in  ranks, 
stood  at  the  top  of  it,  and  a  shoot  of  plank,  two  feet  wide  and 
thirty  long,  conveyed  it  nearly  to  the  water.  The  crew  rushed 
to  the  wood-piles — master,  passengers,  and  all,  but  the  engineer 
and  chambermaid,  deserting  the  boat — and  the  wood  was  first 
passed  down,  as  many  as  could,  throwing  into  the  shoot,  and 
others  forming  a  line,  and  tossing  it,  from  one  to  another,  down 
the  bank.  From  the  water's  edge  it  was  passed,  in  the  same 
way,  to  its  place  on  board,  with  great  rapidity — the  crew 
exciting  themselves  with  yells.     They  were  all  blacks,  but  one. 

On  a  tree,  near  the  top  of  the  bank,  a  little  box  was  nailed, 
on  which  a  piece  of  paper  was  tacked,  with  this  inscription : 

"  fo  ate  feezdon*  iaft>w?//  wood tiom,  tntd-  tanavn/  /i/eaa 
"  to  /eav  a  ticket  Aauavie/  to  €ne/  aavdettvez,  at 
"  J>/,'/5  a  cold  ad  nezetotoiet 

"  Q^moa     d%4ed." 

and  the  master — -just  before  the  wood  was  all  on  board — hastily 
filled  a  blank  order  (torn  from  a  book,  like  a  check-book,  leaving 
a  memorandum  of  the  amount,  etc.)  on  the  owner  of  the  boat 
for  payment,  to  Mr.  Sikes,  for  two  cords  of  pine-wood,  at  $1  75, 
and  two  cords  of  light-wood,  at  $2 — and  left  it  in  the  box.  The 
wood  used  had  been  measured  in  the  ranks  with  a  rod,  carried 
for  the  purpose,  by  the  master,  at  the  moment  he  reached  the 
bank. 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  371 

Before,  with,  all  possible  haste,  we  had  finished  wooding,  the 
Zephyr  passed  us ;  and,  during  the  rest  of  the  day,  she  kept 
out  of  our  sight.  As  often  as  Ave  met  a  steam-boat,  or 
passed  any  flats  or  rafts,  our  men  were  calling  out  to  know 
how  far  ahead  of  us  she  was ;  and  when  the  answer  came  back 
each  time,  in  an  increasing  number  of  miles,  they  told  us  that 
our  boat  was  more  than  usually  sluggish,  owing  to  an  uncom- 
monly heavy  freight ;  but,  still,  for  some  time,  they  were  ready 
to  make  bets  that  we  should  get  first  to  Wilmington. 

Several  times  we  were  hailed  from  the  shore,  to  take  on  a  pas- 
senger, or  some  light  freight ;  and  these  requests,  as  long  as  it 
was  possible,  were  promptly  complied  with — the  boat  being  run 
up,  so  as  to  rest  her  bow  upon  the  bank,  and  then  shouldered 
off  by  the  men,  as  if  she  had  been  a  skiff. 

SLAVE  AND  FREE-LABOR  IN  THE  GLUE  TRADE. 

There  were  but  three  through-passengers,  besides  myself. 
Among  them,  was  a  glue-manufacturer,  of  Baltimore — getting 
orders  from  the  turpentine-distillers — and  a  turpentine-farmer  and 
distiller.  The  glue-manufacturer  said  that,  in  his  factory,  they  had 
formerly  employed  slaves ;  had  since  used  Irishmen,  and  now 
employed  Germans  altogether.  Their  operations  were  carried 
on  night  and  day,  and  one  gang  of  the  men  had  to  relieve 
another.  The  slaves  they  had  employed  never  would  be  on  hand, 
when  the  hour  for  relieving  came.  It  was  also  necessary  to  be 
careful  that  certain  operations  should  be  performed  at  a  certain 
time,  and  some  judgment  and  watchfulness  was  necessary,  to  fix 
this  time :  the  slaves  never  could  be  made  to  care  enough  for  the 
matter,  to  be  depended  upon  for  discretion,  in  this  respect ;  and 
great  injury  was  frequently  done  in  consequence.     Some  of  the 


372  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

operations  were  disagreeable,  and  they  would  put  one  another 
up  to  thinking  and  saying  that  they  ought  not  to  be  required  to 
do  such  dirty  work — and  try  to  have  their  owners  get  them 
away  from  it. 

Irishmen,  he  said,  worked  very  well  and,  to  a  certain  extent, 
faithfully,  and,  for  a  time,  they  liked  them  very  much ;  but  they 
found  that,  in  about  a  fortnight,  an  Irishman  always  thought  he 
knew  more  than  his  master,  and  would  exercise  his  discretion  a 
little  too  much,  as  well  as  often  directly  disregard  his  orders. 
Irishmen  were,  he  said,  "  too  faithful" — that  is,  self-confident 
and  officious. 

At  length,  at  a  hurried  time,  they  had  employed  one  or 
two  Germans.  The  Irishmen,  of  course,  soon  quarreled  with 
them,  and  threatened  to  leave,  if  they  were  kept.  Where- 
upon, they  were,  themselves,  all  discharged,  and  a  full  crew 
of  Germans,  at  much  less  wages,  taken ;  and  they  proved 
excellent  hands — steady,  plodding,  reliable,  though  they  never 
pretended  to  know  anything,  and  said  nothing  about  what 
they  could  do.  They  were  easily  instructed,  obeyed  orders 
faithfully,  and  worked  fairly  for  their  wages,  without  boasting 
or  grumbling. 

The  turpentine-distiller  gave  a  good  account  of  some  of  his 
men  ;  but  said  he  was  sure  they  never  performed  half  so  much 
work  as  he  himself  could;  and  they  sometimes  would,  of  their 
own  accord,  do  twice  as  much,  in  a  day,  as  could  usually  be  got 
out  of  them.  He  employed  a  Scotchman  at  the  "  still ;"  but  he 
never  would  have  white  people  at  ordinary  work,  because  he 
couldn't  drive  them.  He  added,  with  the  utmost  simplicity — 
and  I  do  not  think  any  one  present  saw,  at  the  time,  how  much 
tne  remark  expressed  more  than  it  was  intended  to — "  I  never  can 


NORTH    CAROLINA.  373 

drive  a  white  man,  for  I  know  I  could  never  bear  to  be  driven 
myself,  by  anybody." 

The  other  passenger  was  "  a  North  of  England  man,"  as  I 
suspected  from  the  first  words  I  heard  from  him — though  he  had 
been  in  this  country  for  about  twenty  years.  He  was  a 
mechanic,  and  employed  several  slaves ;  but  testified  strongly  of 
the  expensive  character  of  their  labor ;  and  declared,  without  any 
reserve,  that  the  system  was  ruinous  in  its  effects  upon  the 
character  of  all  classes  of  working-men. 

The  country  on  the  river-bank  was  nearly  all  wooded,  with, 
occasionally,  a  field  of  corn,  which,  even  in  the  low  alluvial 
meadows,  sometimes  overflowed  by  the  river,  and  enriched 
by  its  deposit,  had  evidently  yielded  but  a  very  meagre  crop — 
the  stalks  standing  singly,  at  great  distances,  and  very  small. 
The  greater  part,  even  of  these  once  rich  low  lands,  that  had 
been  in  cultivation,  were  now  "  turned  out,"  and  covered,  either 
with  pines,  or  broom-sedge  and  brushwood. 

At  some  seventy  or  eighty  miles,  I  should  think,  below  Fay- 
etteville,  the  banks  became  lower,  and  there  was  much  swamp 
land,  in  which  the  ground  was  often  covered  with  a  confusion  of 
logs  and  sawn  lumber,  mingled  with  other  rubbish,  left  by  floods 
of  the  river.  The  standing  timber  was  very  large,  and  many  of 
the  trees  were  hung  with  the  long,  waving  drapery  of  the  tyllin- 
dria,  or  Spanish  moss,  which,  as  well  as  the  mistletoe,  I  here  first 
saw  in  profusion.  There  was  also  a  thick  network  among  the 
trees,  of  beautiful  climbing  plants.  I  observed  some  very  large 
grape-vines,  and  many  trees  of  greater  size  than  I  ever  saw  of 
their  species  before.  I  infer  that  this  soil,  properly  reclaimed, 
and  protected  from  floods  of  the  river,  might  be  most  profitably 
used  in  the  culture  of  the  various  half-tropical  trees  and  shrubs, 


374  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

of  whose  fruits  we  now  import  so  large  and  costly  an  amount. 
The  fig,  I  have  been  informed,  grows  and  bears  luxuriantly  at 
Wilmington,  seldom  or  never  suffering  in  its  wood,  though  a 
crop  of  fruit  may  be  occasionally  injured  by  a  severe  late  spring 
"frost.  The  almond,  doubtless,  would  succeed  equally  well,  so 
also  the  olive ;  but  of  none  of  these  is  there  the  slightest  com- 
mercial value  produced  in  North  Carolina,  or  in  all  our  country. 

In  the  evening  we  passed  many  boats  and  rafts,  blazing  with 
great  fires,  made  upon  a  thick  bed  of  clay,  and  their  crews  sing- 
ing at  their  sweeps.  Twenty  miles  above  Wilmington,  the 
shores  became  marshy,  the  river  wide,  and  the  woody  screen  that 
had  hitherto,  in  a  great  degree,  hid  the  nakedness  of  the  land, 
was  withdrawn,  leaving  open  to  view  only  broad,  reedy  savan- 
nahs, on  either  side. 

We  reached  Wilmington,  the  port  at  the  mouth  of  the  river, 
at  half-past  nine.  Taking  a  carriage,  I  was  driven  first  to  one 
hotel,  and  afterwards  to  another.  They  were  both  so  crowded 
with  guests,  and  excessive  business  duties  so  prevented  the 
clerks  from  being  tolerably  civil  to  me,  that  I  feared  if  I  re- 
mained in  either  of  them,  I  should  have  another  Norfolk  experi- 
ence. While  I  was  endeavoring  to  ascertain  if  there  was  a  third 
public-house,  in  which  I  might,  perhaps,  obtain  a  private  room, 
my  eye  fell  upon  an  advertisement  of  a  new  rail-road  line  of 
passage  to  Charleston.  A  boat,  to  take  passengers  to  the  rail- 
road, was  to  start  every  night  from  Wilmington,  at  ten  o'clock. 
It  was  already  something  past  ten,  but  being  pretty  sure  that 
she  would  not  get  off  punctually,  and  having  a  strong  resisting 
impulse  to  being  packed  away  in  a  close  room,  with  any  chance 
stranger  the  clerk  of  the  house  might  choose  to  couple  me  with, 
I  shouldered  my  baggage,  and  ran  for  the  wharves.     At  half- 


NORTH     CAROLINA.  375 

past  ten  I  was  looking  at  Wilmington  over  the  stern  of  another 
little  wheelbarrow-steamboat,  pushing  back  up  the  river.  When 
or  how  I  was  to  be  taken  to  Charleston,  I  had  not  yet  been 
able  to  ascertain.  The  captain  assured  me  it  was  all  right,  and 
demanded  twenty  dollars.  Being  in  his  power,  I  gave  it  to  him, 
and  received  in  return  a  pocketful  of  tickets,  guaranteeing  the 
bearer  passage  from  place  to  place ;  not  one  of  which  places  had 
I  ever  heard  of  before,  except  Charleston. 

The  cabin  was  small,  dirty,  crowded,  close  and  smoky.  Find- 
ing a  warm  spot  in  the  deck,  over  the  furnace,  and  to  leeward  of 
the  chimney,  I  pillowed  myself  on  my  luggage,  and  went  to 
sleep. 

The  ringing  of  the  boat's  bell  awoke  me,  after  no  great  lapse 
of  time,  and  I  found  we  were  in  a  small  creek,  heading  south- 
ward. Presently  we  reached  a  wharf,  near  which  stood  a  loco- 
motive and  train.  A  long,  narrow  plank  having  been  run  out, 
half  a  dozen  white  men,  including  myself,  went  on  shore.  Then 
followed  as  many  negroes,  who  appeared  to  be  a  recent  pur- 
chase of  their  owner.  Owing,  probably,  to  an  unusually  low  tide, 
there  was  a  steep  ascent  from  the  boat  to  the  wharf,  and  I  was 
amused  to  see  the  anxiety  of  this  gentleman  for  the  safe  landing 
of  his  property,  and  especially  to  hear  him  curse  them  for  their 
carelessness,  as  if  their  lives  were  of  much  greater  value  to  him 
than  to  themselves.  One  of  them  was  a  woman.  All  carried  over 
their  shoulders  some  little  baggage,  probably  all  their  personal 
effects,  slung  in  a  blanket ;  and  one  had  a  dog,  whose  safe  land- 
ing caused  him  nearly  as  much  anxiety  as  his  own  did  his 
owner. 

"■  Gib  me  da  dog,  now,"  said  the  dog's  owner,  standing  half 
way  up  the  plank. 


376  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

"Damn  the  dog,"  said  the  negro's  owner;  "give  me  your 
hand  up  here.  Let  go  of  the  dog ;  d'ye  hear !  Let  him  take 
care  of  himself." 

But  the  negro  hugged  the  dog,  and  "brought  him  safely  on 
shore. 

After  a  short  delay,  the  train  started :  the  single  passenger  car 
was  a  very  fine  one  (made  at  Wilmington,  Delaware),  and  just 
sufficiently  warmed.  I  should  have  slept  again  if  it  had  not 
been  that  two  of  the  six  inmates  were  drunk — one  of  them  up- 
roariously, and  the  other  blandly.  The  latter  had  got  pos- 
sessed with  the  idea  that  I  was  the  conductor — probably  because 
I  wore  a  cap — and  in  whatever  part  of  the  car  I  seated  myself, 
would,  as  often  as  once  in  five  minutes,  come  to  make  some 
inquiry  of  me,  usually  first  apologizing  with,  "  Hope  I  don't  in- 
trude, sir,  as  the  immortal  says." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA. 

Passing  through  long  stretches  of  cypress  swamps,  with  occa- 
sional intervals  of  either  pine-barrens,  or  clear  water  ponds,  in 
about  two  hours  we  came,  in  the  midst  of  the  woods,  to  the  end 
of  the  rails.  In  the  vicinity  could  be  seen  a  small  tent,  a  shanty 
of  loose  boards,  and  a  large,  subdued  fire,  around  which,  upon 
the  ground,  there  were  a  considerable  number  of  men,  stretched 
out  asleep.  This  was  the  camp  of  the  hands  engaged  in  laying 
the  rails,  and  who  were  thus  daily  extending  the  distance  which 
the  locomotive  could  run. 

The  conductor  told  me  that  there  was  here  a  break  of  about 
eighty  miles  in  the  rail,  over  which  I  should  be  transferred  by  a 
stage  coach,  which  would  come  as  soon  as  possible  after  the 
driver  knew  that  the  train  had  arrived.  To  inform  him  of  this, 
the  locomotive  screamed  loud  and  long. 

The  negro  property,  which  had  been  brought  up  in  a  freight 
car,  was  immediately  let  out  on  the  stoppage  of  the  train.  As 
it  stepped  on  to  the  platform,  its  owner  asked,  "Are  you  all 
here?" 

"Yes,  massa,  we  is  all  heah,"  answered  one;  "Do  dysef  no 
harm,  for  we's  all  heah,"  added  another,  quoting  Saint  Peter,  in 
an  under  tone. 

The  negroes  immediately  gathered  some  wood,  and,  taking  a 


378  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

brand  from  the  rail-road  hands,  made  a  fire  for  themselves  ;  then, 
all  but  the  woman,  opening  their  bundles,  wrapped  themselves  in 
their  blankets  and  went  to  sleep.  The  woman,  bare-headed,  and 
very  inadequately  clothed  as  she  was,  stood  for  a  long  time 
alone,  perfectly  still,  erect  and  statue-like,  with  her  head  bowed, 
gazing  in  the  fire.  She  had  taken  no  part  in  the  light  chat  of 
the  others,  and  had  given  them  no  assistance  in  making  the  fire. 
Her  dress,  too,  was  not  the  usual  plantation  apparel.  It  was-  all 
sadly  suggestive. 

The  principal  other  freight  of  the  train  was  one  hundred  and 
twenty  bales  of  northern  hay.  It  belonged,  as  the  conductor 
told  me,  to  a  planter  who  lived  some  twenty  miles  beyond  here, 
and  who  had  bought  it  in  Wilmington  at  a  dollar  and  a  half  a 
hundred  weight,  to  feed  to  his  mules.  Including  the  steam-boat 
and  rail-road  freight,  and  all  the  labor  of  getting  it  to  his  stables, 
its  entire  cost  to  him  would  not  be  much  less  than  two  dollars  a 
hundred.  This  would  be  at  least  four  times  as  much  as  it  would 
have  cost  to  raise  and  make  it  in  the  interior  of  New  York  or 
New  England.  Now,  there  are  not  only  several  forage  crops 
which  can  be  raised  in  South  Carolina,  that  cannot  be  grown  on 
account  of  the  severity  of  the  winter  in  the  free  States,  but,  on  a 
farm  near  Fayetteville,  a  few  days  before,  I  had  seen  a  crop  of 
natural  grass  growing  in  half-cultivated  land,  dead  upon  the 
ground ;  which,  I  think,  would  have  made,  if  it  had  been  cut  and 
well  treated  in  the  summer,  three  tons  of  hay  to  the  acre.  The 
owner  of  the  land  said  that  there  was  no  better  hay  than  it  would 
have  made,  but  he  hadn't  had  time  to  attend  to  it.  He  had  as 
much  as  his  hands  could  do  of  other  work  at  the  period  of  the 
year  when  it  should  have  been  made. 

Probably  the  case  was  similar  with  the  planter  who  had  bought 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  379 

this  northern  hay  at  a  price  four  times  that  which  it  would  have 
cost  a  northern  farmer  to  make  it.  He  had  preferred  to  employ 
his  slaves  at  other  business. 

The  inference  must  be  either  that  there  was  most  improbably- 
foolish,  bad  management,  or  that  the  slaves  were  more  profitably 
employed  in  cultivating  cotton,  than  they  could  have  been  in 
cultivating  maize,  or  other  forage  crops. 

I  put  the  case,  some  days  afterwards,  to  an  English  mer- 
chant, who  had  had  good  opportunities,  and  made  it  a  part  of 
his  business,  to  study  such  matters. 

"  I'  have  no  doubt,"  said  he,  "  that,  if  hay  cannot  be  ob- 
tained here,  other  valuable  forage  can,  with  less  labor  than  any- 
where at  the  North ;  and  all  the  Southern  agricultural  journals 
sustain  this  opinion,  and  declare  it  to  be  purely  bad  manage- 
ment that  neglects  these  crops,  and  devotes  labor  to  cotton, 
so  exclusively.  Probably,  it  is  so — at  the  present  cost  of  forage. 
Nevertheless,  the  fact  is  also  true,  as  the  planters  assert,  that 
they  cannot  afford  to  apply  their  labor  to  anything  else  but 
cotton.  And  yet,  they  complain  that  the  price  of  cotton  is  so 
low,  that  there  is  no  profit  in  growing  it ;  which  is  evidently 
false.  You  see  that  they  prefer  buying  hay,  to  raising  it,  at,  to 
say  the  least,  three  times  what  it  costs  your  Northern  farmers  to 
raise  it.  Of  course,  if  cotton  could  be  grown  in  New  York  and 
Ohio,  it  could  be  afforded  at  one-third  the  cost  it  is  here — 
say  at  three  cents  per  pound.  And  that  is  my  solution  of  the 
Slavery  question,  firing  cotton  down  to  three  cents  a  pound, 
and  there  would  be  more  abolitionists  in  South  Carolina  than 
in  Massachusetts.  If  that  can  be  brought  about,  in  any 
way — and  it  is  not  impossible  that  we  may  live  to  see  it,  as 
our  railways  are   extended  in  India,   and  the  French  enlarge 


380  OTJK.     SLAVE     STATES. 

their  free-labor  plantations  in  Algiers — there  will  be  an  end  of 
Slavery." 

It  was  just  one  o'clock  when  the  stage-coach  came  for  us. 
There  was  but  one  passenger  beside  myself — a  Philadelphia  gen- 
tleman, going  to  Columbia.  We  proceeded  very  slowly  for 
about  three  miles,  across  a  swamp,  upon  a  "corduroy  road;" 
then  more  rapidly,  over  rough  ground,  being  tossed  about  in  the 
coach  most  severely,  for  six  or  eight  miles  further.  Besides  the 
driver,  there  was  on  the  box  the  agent  or  superintendent  of  the 
coach  line,  who  now  opened  the  doors,  and  we  found  ourselves 
before  a  log  stable,  in  the  midst  of  a  forest  of  large  pines.  The 
driver  took  out  a  horse,  and,  mounting  him,  rode  off,  and  we  col- 
lected wood,  splitting  it  with  a  hatchet  that  was  carried  on  the 
coach,  and,  lighting  it  from  the  coach  lamp,  made  a  fire.  It  was 
very  cold,  ice  half  an  inch  thick,  and  a  heavy  hoar  frost.  We 
complained  to  the  agent  that  there  was  no  straw  in  the  coach 
bottom,  while  there  were  large  holes  bored  in  it,  that  kept  our 
feet  excessively  cold.  He  said  that  there  was  no  straw  to  be  had 
in  the  country.  They  were  obliged  to  bed  their  horses  with 
pine  leaves,  which  were  damp,  and  would  be  of  no  service  to  us. 
The  necessity  for  the  holes  he  did  not  immediately  explain,  and 
we,  in  the  exercise  of  our  Yankee  privilege,  resolved  that  they 
were  made  with  reference  to  the  habit  of  expectoration,  which  we 
had  observed  in  the  car  to  be  very  general  and  excessive. 

In  about  half  an  hour  the  driver  of  the  new  stage  came  to  us 
on  the  horse  that  the  first  had  ridden  away.  A  new  set  of 
horses  was  brought  out,  and  attached  to  the  coach,  and  we  were 
driven  on  again.  An  hour  later,  the  sun  rose ;  we  were  still  in 
pine-barrens,  once  in  several  miles  passing  through  a  clear- 
ing, with  a  log  farm-house,  and  a  few  negro  huts  about  it ;  often 


SOUTH    CAROLINA    AND     GEORGIA.  381 

through  cypress  swamps,  and  long  pools  of  water.  At  the  end 
of  ten  miles  we  breakfasted,  and  changed  horses  and  drivers  at  a 
steam  saw-mill.  A  few  miles  further  on,  we  were  asked  to  get 
on  the  top  of  the  coach,  while  it  was  driven  through  a  swamp, 
in  which  the  water  was  over  the  road,  for  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  to 
such  a  depth  that  it  covered  the  foot-board.  The  horses  really 
groaned,  as  they  pushed  the  thin  ice  away  with  their  necks,  and 
were  very  near  swimming.  The  holes  in  the  coach  bottom,  the 
agent  now  told  us,  were  to  allow  the  water  that  would  here  enter 
the  body  to  flow  out.  At  the  end  of  these  ten  miles  we  changed 
again,  at  a  cotton  planter's  house — a  very  neat,  well-built  house, 
having  pine  trees  about  it,  but  very  poor,  old,  negro  quarters. 

Since  the  long  ford  we  had  kept  the  top,  the  inside  of  the 
coach  being  wet,  and  I  had  been  greatly  pleased  with  the  driving 
— the  coachman,  a  steady,  reliable  sort  of  fellow,  saying  but 
little  to  his  horses,  and  doing  what  swearing  he  thought  neces- 
sary in  English;  driving,  too,  with  great  judgment  and  skill. 
The  coach  was  a  fine,  roomy,  old-fashioned,  fragrant,  leathery 
affair,  and  the  horses  the  best  I  had  seen  this  side  of  Virginia.  I 
could  not  resist  expressing  my  pleasure  with  the  whole  estab- 
lishment. The  new  team  was  admirable ;  four  sleek,  well-gov- 
erned, eager,  sorrel  cobs,  and  the  driver,  a  staid,  bronzed-faced 
man,  keeping  them  tight  in  hand,  drove  quietly  and  neatly,  his 
whip  in  the  socket.  After  about  fifteen  minutes,  during  which 
he  had  been  engaged  in  hushing  down  their  too  great  impetu- 
osity, he  took  out  a  large  silver  hunting-watch,  and  asked  what 
time  it  was. 

"  Quarter  past  eleven,"  said  the  agent. 

"  Twelve  minutes  past,"  said  the  Philadelphian. 

"  Well,  fourteen,  only,  I  am,"  said  the  agent. 


382  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

"  Thirteen,"  said  I. 

"Just  thirteen,  I  am,"  said  the  driver,  slipping  back  his  watch 
to  its  place,  and  then,  to  the  agent,  "  ha'an't  touched  a  hand  of 
her  since  I  left  old  Lancaster." 

Suddenly  guessing  the  meaning  of  what  had  been  for  some 
time  astonishing  me — "  You  are  from  the  North  ?"  I  asked. 

"Yes,  sir." 

"  And  you,  too,  Mr.  Agent  <?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"And  the  coach,  and  the  cattle,  and  all?" 

"  All  from  Pennsylvania." 

"  How  long  have  you  been  here?" 

"We  have  been  here  about  a  fortnight,  stocking  the  road. 
We  commenced  regular  trips  yesterday.  You  are  the  first  pas- 
senger through,  sir." 

It  was,  in  fact,  merely  a  transfer  from  one  of  the  old  National 
Eoad  lines,  complete.  After  a  little  further  conversation,  I 
asked,  "  How  do  you  like  the  country,  here  ?" 

"  Very  nice  country,"  said  the  agent. 

"  Eather  poor  soil,  I  should  say." 

"  It's  the  cussedest  poor  country  God  ever  created,"  snapped 
out  the  driver. 

"  You  have  to  keep  your  horses  on " 

"  Shucks  !  damn  it." 

NATURE   IN   EASTERN   SOUTH   CAROLINA. 

The  character  of  the  scenery  was  novel  to  me,  the  surface  very 
flat,  the  soil  a  fine-grained,  silvery  white  sand,  shaded  by  a  con- 
tinuous forest  of  large  pines,  which  had  shed  their  lower  branches, 
so  that  we  could  see  from  the  coach-top,  to   the  distance  of  a 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  383 

quarter  of  a  mile,  everything  upon  the  ground.  In  the  swamps, 
which  were  frequent  and  extensive,  and  on  their  "borders,  the 
pines  gave  place  to  cypresses,  with  great  pedestal  trunks,  and 
protuberant  roots,  throwing  up  an  awkward  dwarf  progeny  of 
shrub  cypress,  and  curious  bulbous-like  stumps,  called  "  cypress- 
knees."  Mingled  with  these  were  a  few  of  our  common  decidu- 
ous trees,  the  white-shafted  sycamore,  the  gray  beech,  and  the 
shrubby  black-jack  oak,  with  broad  leaves,  brown  and  dead,  yet 
glossy,  and  reflecting  the  sun-beams.  Somewhat  rarely,  the  red 
cedar,  and,  more  frequently  than  any  other  except  the  cypress, 
the  beautiful  holly.  Added  to  these,  there  was  often  a  thick  un- 
dergrowth of  evergreen  shrubs.  Vines  and  creepers  of  various 
kinds  grew  to  the  tops  of  the  tallest  trees,  and  dangled  beneath 
and  between  their  branches,  in  intricate  net-work.  The  tylandria 
hung  in  festoons,  sometimes  several  feet  in  length,  and  often 
completely  clothed  the  trunks,  and  every  branch  of  the  trees  in 
the  low  ground.  It  is  like  a  fringe  of  tangled  hair,  of  a  light 
gray  pearly  color,  and  sometimes  produces  exquisite  effects  when 
slightly  veiling  the  dark  green,  purple  and  scarlet  of  the  cedar, 
and  the  holly  with  their  berries.  The  mistletoe  also  grew  in 
large,  vivid,  green  tufts,  on  the  ends  of  the  branches  of  the 
oldest  and  largest  trees.  A  small,  fine  and  wiry,  dead  grass, 
hardly  perceptible,  even  in  the  most  open  ground,  from  the 
coach  tops,  was  the  only  sign  of  herbage.  Large  black  buz- 
zards were  constantly  in  sight,  sailing  slowly,  high  above  the 
tree-tops.  Flocks  of  larks,  quails,  and  robins  were  common,  as 
were  also  doves,  swiftly  flying  in  small  companies.  The  red- 
headed woodpecker  could  at  any  time  be  heard  hammering  the 
old  tree-trunks,  and  would  sometimes  show  himself,  after  his  rat- 
tat,  cocking  his  head  archly,  and  listening  to  hear  if  the  worm 


384  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

moved  under  the  bark.  The  drivers  told  me  that  they  had,  on 
previous  days,  as  they  went  over  the  road,  seen  deer,  turkeys, 
and  wild  hogs. 

THE    PEOPLE.       • 

At  every  tenth  mile,  or  thereabout,  we  changed  horses ;  and, 
generally,  were  allowed  half  an  hour,  to  stroll  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  stable — the  agent  observing  that  we  could  reach  the 
end  of  the  staging  some  hours  before  the  cars  should  leave  to 
take  us  further ;  and,  as  there  were  no  good  accommodations  for 
sleeping  there,  we  would  pass  the  time  quite  as  pleasantly  on  the 
road.  We  dined  at  "  Marion  County  House,"  a  pleasant  little 
village  (and  the  only  village  we  saw  during  the  day),  with  a  fine 
pine-grove,  a  broad  street,  a  court-house,  a  church  or  two,  a  school- 
house,  and  a  dozen  or  twenty  dwellings.  Towards  night,  we 
crossed  the  Great  Pedee  of  the  maps,  the  Big  Pedee  of  the  natives, 
in  a  flat-boat.  A  large  quantity  of  cotton,  in  bales,  was  upon 
the  bank,  ready  for  loading  into  a  steam-boat — when  one  should 
arrive — for  Charleston. 

The  country  was  very  thinly  peopled;  lone  houses  often 
being  several  miles  apart.  The  large  majority  of  the  dwell- 
ings were  of  logs,  and  even  those  of  the  white  people 
were  often  without  glass  windows.  In  the  better  class  of 
cabins,  the  roof  is  usually  built  with  a  curve,  so  as  to  project 
eight  or  ten  feet  beyond  the  log-wall ;  and  a  part  of  this  space, 
exterior  to  the  logs,  is  inclosed  with  boards,  making  an 
additional  small  room — the  remainder  forms  an  open  porch. 
The  whole  cabin  is  often  elevated  on  four  corner-posts,  two  or 
three  feet  from  the  ground,  so  that  the  air  may  circulate  under 
it.     The  fire-place  is  built  at  the  end  of  the  house,  of  sticks  and 


SOUTH    CAROLINA    AND     GEORGIA. 


385 


clay,  and  the  chimney  is  carried  up  outside,  and  often  detached 
from  the  log-walls  ;  but  the  roof  is  extended  at  the  gable,  until 
in  a  line  with  its  outer  side.     The  porch  has  a  railing  in  front, 


and  a  wide  shelf  at  the  end,  on  which  a  bucket  of  water,  a 

gourd,  and  hand-basin,  are  usually  placed.     There  are  chairs,  or 

benches,  in  the  porch,  and  you  often  see  women  sitting  at  work 

in  it,  as  in  Germany. 

The  logs  are  usually  hewn  but  little  ;  and,  of  course,  as  they 

are  laid  up,  there  will  be  wide  interstices  between  them — which 

are  increased  by  subsequent  shrinking.     These,  very  commonly, 

are  not  "  chinked,"  or  filled  up  in  any  way ;  nor  is  the  wall  lined 

on  the  inside.     Through  the  chinks,  as  you  pass  along  the  road, 
17 


386  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

you  may  often  see  all  tliat  is  going  on  in  the  house ;  and,  at 
night,  the  light  of  the  fire  shines  brightly  out  on  all  sides. 

Cabins,  of  this  class,  would  almost  always  be  flanked  by  two 
or  three  negro-huts.  The  cabins  of  the  poorest  class  of  whites 
were  of  a  meaner  sort — being  mere  square  pens  of  logs,  roofed 
over,  provided  with  a  chimney,  and  usually  with  a  shed  of 
boards,  supported  by  rough  posts,  before  the  door. 

Occasionally,  where  the  silvery  sand  was  darkened  by  a 
considerable  intermixture  of  mould,  there  would  be  a  large 
plantation,  with  negro-quarters,  and  a  cotton-press  and  gin- 
house.  We  passed  half  a  dozen  of  these,  perhaps,  during  the 
day.  Where  the  owners  resided  in  them,  they  would  have 
comfortable-looking  residences,  not  unlike  the  better  class  of 
New  England  farm-houses.  On  the  largest  one,  however, 
there  was  no  residence  for  the  owner,  at  all,  only  a  small  cot- 
tage, or  whitewashed  cabin,  for  the  overseer.  It  was  a  very 
large  plantation,  and  all  the  buildings  were  substantial  and 
commodious,  except  the  negro-cabins,  which  were  the  smallest 
I  had  seen — I  thought  not  more  than  twelve  feet  square,  in- 
teriorly. They  stood  in  two  rows,  with  a  wide  street  between 
them.  They  were  built  of  logs,  with  no  windows — no  opening 
at  all,  except  the  doorway,  with  a  chimney  of  sticks  and  mud; 
with  no  trees  about  them,  no  porches,  or  shades,  of  any  kind. 
Except  for  the  chimney — the  purpose  of  which  I  should  nol 
readily  have  guessed — if  I  had  seen  one  of  them  in  New  England. 
I  should  have  conjectured  that  it  had  been  built  for  a  powder- 
house,  or  perhaps  an  ice-house — never  for  an  animal  to  sleep  in. 

We  stopped,  for  some  time,  on  this  plantation,  near  where 
some  thirty  men  and  women  were  at  work,  repairing  the  road. 
The  women  were  in  majority,  and  were  engaged  at  exactly  the 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA 


387 


same  labor  as  the  men ;  driving  the  carts,  loading  them  with 
dirt,  and  dumping  them  upon  the  road;  cutting  down  trees,  and 
drawing  wood  by  hand,  to  lay  across  the  miry  places  ;  hoeing, 
and  shoveling. 


They  were  dressed  in  coarse  gray  gowns,  generally  very  much 
burned,  and  very  dirty ;  which,  for  greater  convenience  of  work- 
ing in  the  mud,  were  reefed  up  with  a  cord  drawn  tightly  around 
the  body,  a  little  above  the  hips — the  spare  amount  of  skirt 
bagging  out  between  this 'and  the  waist-proper.  On  their  legs 
were  loose  leggins,  or  pieces  of  .blanket  or  bagging  wrapped 
about,  and  lashed  with  thongs ;  and  they  wore  very  heavy  shoes. 
Most  of  them  had  handkerchiefs,  only,  tied  around  their  heads, 


388  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

some  wore  men's  caps,  or  old  slouched  hats,  and  several  were 
bare-headed. 

The  overseer  rode  about  among  them,  on  a  horse,  carrying  in 
his  hand  a  raw-hide  whip,,  constantly  directing  and  encouraging 
them ;  but,  as  my  companion  and  I,  both,  several  times  noticed, 
as  often  as  he  visited  one  end  of  the  line  of  operations,  the  hands 
at  the  other  end  would  discontinue  their  labor,  until  he  turned 
to  ride  towards  them  again.  Clumsy,  awkward,  gross,  ele- 
phantine in  all  their  movements  ;  pouting,  grinning,  and  leering 
at  us  ;  sly,  sensual,  and  shameless,  in  all  their  expressions  and 
demeanor ;  I  never  before  had  witnessed,  I  thought,  anything 
more  revolting  than  the  whole  scene. 

At  length,  the  overseer  dismounted  from  his  horse,  and,  giving 
him  to  a  boy  to  take  to  the  stables,  got  upon  the  coach,  and 
rode  with  us  several  miles.  From  the  conversation  I  had  with 
him,  as  well  as  from  what  I  saw  of  his  conduct  in  the  field,  I 
judged  that  he  was  an  uncommonly  fit  man  for  his  duties ;  at 
least  ordinarily  amiable  in  disposition,  and  not  passionate ;  but 
deliberate,  watchful,  and  efficient.  I  thought  he  would  be  not 
only  a  good  economist,  but  a  firm  and  considerate  officer  or  master. 

If  these  women,  and  their  children  after  them,  were  always 
naturally  and  necessarily  to  remain  of  the  character  and  capacity 
stamped  on  their  faces — as  is  probably  the  opinion  of  their 
owner,  in  common  with  most  wealthy'South  Carolina  planters — 
I  don't  know  that  they  could  be  much  less  miserably  situated, 
or  guided  more  for  their  own  good  and  that  of  the  world,  than 
they  were.  They  were  fat  enough,  and  didn't  look  as  if  they 
were  at  all  overworked,  or  harassed  by  cares,  or  oppressed  by  a 
consciousness  of  their  degradation.  If  that  is  all — as  some 
think. 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  389 

Afterwards,  while  we  were  changing  at  a  house  near  a  cross- 
ing of  roads,  strolling  off  in  the  woods  for  a  short  distance,  I 
came  upon  two  small  white-topped  wagons,  each  with  a  pair 
of  horses  feeding  at  its  pole  ;  near  them  was  a  dull  camp  fire, 
with  a  bake-kettle  and  coffee-pot,  some  blankets  and  a  chest 
npon  the  ground;  and  an  old  negro,  sitting  with  his  head 
bowed  down  over  a  meal  sack,  while  a  negro  boy  was  combing 
his  wool  with  a  common  horse-card.  "  Good  evening,  uncle," 
said  I,  approaching  them.  "  Good  evening,  sar,"  he  answered, 
without  looking  up. 

"Where  are  you  going?" 

"  Well,  we  ain't  goin'  nower,  master ;  we's  peddlin'  tobacco 
roun." 

"  Oh !  peddling  tobacco.     Where  did  you  come  from  ?" 

"From  Eockingham  County,  Norf  Car'lina,  master." 

"  How  long  have  you  been  coming  from  there  ?" 

"'Twill  be  seven  weeks,  to-morrow,  sar,  since  we  left  home." 

"Have  you  most  sold  out?" 

"  We  had  a  hundred  and  seventy-five  boxes  in  both  wagons, 
and  we's  sold  all  but  sixty.  Want  to  buy  some  tobacco,  mas- 
ter?"   (Looking  up.) 

"  No,  thank  you ;  I  am  only  waiting  here,  while  the  coach 
changes.     How  much  tobacco  is  there  in  a  box  ?" 

"Seventy-five  pound." 

"Are  these  the  boxes?" 

"  No,  them  is  our  provision  boxes,  master.  Show  de  gemman 
some  of  der  tobacco,  dah."     (To  the  boy.) 

A  couple  of  negroes  here  passed  along  near  us ;  the  old 
man  hailed  them : 

"  Ho  dah,  boys !     Doan  you  want  to  buy  some  backey  ?" 


390  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

"No."     (Decidedly.) 

"  Well,  I'm  sorry  for  it."     (Eeproaclifully.) 

"  Are  you  bound  homeward,  now?"  I  asked. 

"  No,  massa ;  wish  me  was  ;  got  to  sell  all  our  tobackey  fuss  ; 
you  don't  want  none,  master,  does  you?  Doan  you  tink  it 
pretty  fair  tobacco,  sar,  just  try  it :  its  right  sweet,  reckon  you'll 
find." 

"  I  don't  wish  any,  thank  you ;  I  never  use  it.  Is  your 
master  with  you  ?" 

"No,  sar;  he's  gone  across  to  Marion,  to-day." 

"Do  you  like  to  be  traveling  about,  in  tbis  way?" 

"  Yes,  master ;  I  likes  it  very  well." 

"  Better  than  staying  at  home,  eh  ?" 

"  Well,  I  likes  my  country  better  dan  dis ;  must  say  dat, 
master,  likes  my  country  better  dan  dis.  I'se  a  free  nigger 
in  my  country,  master." 

"  Oh,  you  are  a  free  man,  are  you !  North  Carolina  is  a  bet- 
ter country  than  this,  for  free  men,  I  suppose." 

"  Yes,  master,  I  likes  my  country  de  best ;  I  gets  five  dollar 
a  month  for  dat  boy."     (Hastily,  to  change  the  subject.) 

"He  is  your  son,  is  he?" 

"  Yes,  sar ;  he  drives  dat  wagon.  I  drives  dis ;  and  I  haant 
seen  him  fore,  master,  for  six  weeks,  till  dis  mornin'." 

"How  were  you  separated?" 

"  We  separated  six  weeks  ago,  sar,  and  we  agreed  to  meet 
here,  last  night.     We  didn',  dough,  till  dis  mornin'." 

The  old  man's  tone  softened,  and  he  regarded  his  son  with 
earnestness. 

"  'Pears  dough,  we  was  bofe  heah,  last  night ;  but  I  couldn't 
find  dem  till  dis  mornin'.     Dis  mornin'  some  niggars  tole  me 


SOUTH    CAROLINA    AND     GEORGIA.  391 

dar  war  a  niggar  camped  off  yander  in  de  wood ;  and  I  knew 
'twas  him,  and  I  went  an'  found  him  right  off." 

"And  what  wages  do  you  get  for  yourself?" 

"  Ten  dollars  a  month,  master." 

"  That's  pretty  good  wages." 

"  Yes,  master,  any  niggar  can  get  good  wages  if  he's  a  mind 
to  be  industrious,  no  matter  wedder  he's  slave  or  free." 

"So  you  don't  like  this  country  as  well  as  North  Carolina?" 

"  No,  master.  Fac  is,  master,  'pears  like  wite  folks  doan  gine- 
rally  like  niggars  in  dis  country ;  day  doan'  ginerally  talk  so  to 
niggars  like  as  do  in  my  country, ;  de  niggars  ain't  so  happy 
heah;  'pears  like  de  wite  folks  was  kind"  o'  different,  somehow. 
I  doan'  like  dis  country  so  well;  my  country  suits  me  very 
well." 

"Well,  I've  been  thinking,  myself,  the  niggers  did  not 
look  so  well  here  as  they  did  in  North  Carolina  and  Virginia ; 
they  are  not  so  well  clothed,  and  they  don't  appear  so  bright  as 
they  do  there." 

"  Well,  massa,  Sundays  dey  is  mighty  well  clothed,  dis  country  ; 
'pears  like  dere  an't  nobody  looks  better  Sundays  dan  dey 
do.  But  Lord!  workin'  days,  seems  like  dey  haden  no  close 
dey  could  keep  on  'um  at  all,  master.  Dey  is  a'mos'  naked,  wen 
deys  at  work,  some  on  'em.  Why,  master,  up  in  our  country, 
de  wite  folks,  why,  some  on  'em  has  ten  or  twelve  niggars ;  dey 
doan'  hev  no  real  big  plantation,  like  dey  has  heah,  but  some  on 
'em  has  ten  or  twelve  niggars,  may  be,  and  dey  juss  lives  and 
talks  along  wid  'em;  and  dey  treats  'um  most  as  if  dem 
was  dar  own  chile.  Dey  doan'  keep  no  niggars  dey  can't  treat 
so ;  dey  wont  keep  'em,  wont  be  bodered  wid  'em.  If  dey 
gets  a  niggar  and  he  doan  behave  himself,  day  wont  keep  him ; 


392  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

dey  juss  tell  him,  sar,  lie  must  look  up  anudder  master,  and 
if  lie  doan'  find  hisself  one,  I  tell  'ou,  when  de  trader  cum  along, 
dey  sell  him,  and  he  totes  him  away.  Dey  allers  sell  off  all  de 
bad  niggers  out  of  our  country ;  dat's  de  Avay  all  de  bad  niggal 
and  all  dem  no-account  niggar  keep  a  cumin'  down  heah ;  dat's 
de  way  on't,  master." 

"Yes,  that's  the  way  of  it,  I  suppose;  these  big  plantations 
are  not  just  the  best  thing  for  niggers,  I  see  that  plainly." 

"Master,  you  want  raise  in  dis  country,  was  'ou?" 

"No;  I  came  from  the  North." 

"  I  tort  so,  sar,  I  knew  'ou  wan't  one  of  dis  country  people, 
'peared  like  'ou  was*  one  o'  my  country  people,  way  'ou 
talks ;  and  I  loves  dem  kine  of  people.  Won't  you  take 
some  whisky,  sar?"  Heah,  you  boy!  bring  dat  jug  of 
whisky  dah,  out  o'  my  wagon ;  in  dah,  in  dat  box  under  dem 
foddar." 

"No,  don't  trouble  yourself,  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you; 
but  I  don't  like  to  drink  whisky." 

"  Like  to  have  you  drink  some,  massa,  if  you'd  like  it.  You's 
right  welcome  to  it.  'Pears  like  I  knew'  you  was  one'  of  my 
country  people.  Ever  been  in  Greensboro'  massa?  dat's  in 
Guilford." 

"  No,  I  never  was  there.  I  came  from  New  York,  further 
North  than  your  country." 

"New  York,  did  'ou,  massa?  I  heerd  New  York  was  what 
dey  calls  a  Free  State ;  all  de  niggars  free  dah." 

"  Yes,  that  is  so." 

"Not  no  slaves  at  all;  well,  I  expec  dat's  a  good  ting,  for  all 
de  niggars  to  be  free.  Greensboro'  is  a  right  comely  town ; 
tain't  like  dese  heah  Souf  Car'lina  towns." 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA.     393 

"  I  have  heard  it  spoken   of  as   a  very  beautiful  town,  and 
there  are  some  very  nice  people  there." 

"Yes,   dere's  Mr.  ■  ,  I  knows  him,  he's  a  mighty 

good  man." 

"  Do  you  know  Mr. ? 

"  0,  yes  sar,  he's  a  mighty  fine  man,  he  is,  massa ;  ain't  no 
better  kind  of  man  dan  him." 

'  "Well,  I  must  go,  or  the  coach  will  be  kept  waiting  for  me. 
Good-by  to  you." 

"Far' well,  master,  far' well,  'pears  like  it's  done  me  good  to  see 
a  man  dat's  cum  out  of  my  country  again.     Far'well,  master." 

We  took  supper  at  an  exquisitely  neat  log-cabin,  standing 
a  short  distance  off  the  road,  with  a  beautiful  ever-green 
oak,  the  first  I  had  observed,  in  front  of  it.  There  was  no 
glass  in  the  windows,  but  drapery  of  white  muslin  restrained 
the  currents  of  air,  and  during  the  day  would  let  in  sufficient 
light,  while  a  great  blazing  wood-fire  both  warmed  and  lighted 
the  room  by  night.  A  rifle  and  powder-horn  hung  near  ihe 
fire-place,  and  the  master  of  the  house,  a  fine,  hearty,  companion- 
"able  fellow,  said  that  he  had  lately  shot  three  deer,  and  that  there 
were  plenty  of  cats,  and  foxes,  as  well  as  turkeys,  hares,  squir- 
rels and  other  small  game  in  the  vicinity.  It  was  a  perfectly  charm- 
ing little  backwoods  farm-house,  good  wife,  supper,  and  all ; 
but  one  disagreeable  blot  darkened  the  otherwise  most  agree- 
able picture  of  rustic  civilization — -we  were  waited  upon  at  table 
by  two  excessively  dirty,  slovenly-dressed,  negro  girls.  In 
the  rear  of  the  cabin  were  two  hovels,  each  lighted  by  large 
fires,  and  apparently  crowded  with  other  slaves  belonging  to  the 

family. 

17* 


394  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

Between  nine  and  ten  at  night,  we  reached  the  end  of  the 
completed  rail-road,  coming  up  in  search  for  that  we  had  left 
the  previous  night.  There  was  another  camp  and  fire  of  the 
workmen,  and  in  a  little  white  frame-house  we  found  a  company 
of  engineers.  There  were  two  trains  and  locomotives  on  the 
track,  and  a  gang  of  negroes  Avas  loading  cotton  into  one  of 
them. 

NEGRO   JODLING.     "THE    CAROLINA    YELL." 

I  strolled  off  until  I  reached  an  opening  in  the  woods,  in 
which  was  a  cotton-field  and  some  negro-cabins,  and  beyond 
it  large  girdled  trees,  among  which  were  two  negroes  with 
dogs,  barking,  yelping,  hacking,  shouting,  and  whistling,  after 
'coons  and  'possums.  Eeturning  to  the  rail-road,  I  found  a  com- 
fortable, warm  passenger-car,  and,  wrapped  in  my  blanket,  went 
to  sleep.  At  midnight  I  was  awakened  by  loud  laughter,  and, 
looking  out,  saw  that  the  loading  gang  of  negroes  had  made 
a  fire,  and  were  enjoying  a  right  merry  repast.  Suddenly,  one 
raised  such  a  sound  as  I  never  heard  before  ;  a  long,  loud,  musical 
shout,  rising,  and  falling,  and  breaking  into  falsetto,  his  voice  ring- 
ing through  the  woods  in  the  clear,  frosty  night  air,  like  a  bugle- 
call.  As  he  finished,  the  melody  was  caught  up  by  another,  and 
then,  another,  and  then,  by  several  in  chorus.  When  there 
was  silence  again,  one  of  them  cried  out,  as  if  bursting  with 
amusement :  "  Did  yer  see  de  dog  ? — when  I  began  eeohing,  he 
turn  roun'  an'  look  me  straight  into  der  face ;  ha !  ha !  ha !" 
and  the  whole  party  broke  into  the  loudest  peals  of  laughter,  as 
if  it  was  the  very  best  joke  they  had  ever  heard. 

After  a  few  minutes  I  could  hear  one  urging  the  rest  to  come 
to  work  again,  and  soon  he  stepped  towards  the  cotton  bales, 


SOT    TH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  3i5 

saying,  "  Come,  brederen,  come  ;  let's  go  at  it ;  come  now.  eoho  ! 
roll  away!  eeoko-eeoho-weeioho-i!" — and  the  rest  taking  it  up 
as  before,  in  a  few  moments  they  all  had  their  shoulders  to  a 
bale  of  cotton,  and  were  rolling  it  up  the  embankment. 

About  half-past  three,  I  was  awakened  again  by  the  whistle  of 
the  locomotive,  answering,  I  suppose,  the  horn  of  a  stage-coach, 
which  in  a  few  minutes  drove  up,  bringing  a  mail.  A  negro 
man  and  woman,  sleeping  near  me,  replenished  the  fire ;  two 
other  passengers  came  in  and  we  started. 

In  the  wroods  I  saw  a  negro  by  a  fire,  while  it  was  still  night, 
shaving  shingles  very  industriously.  He  did  not  even  stop 
to  look  at  the  train.  No  doubt  he  was  a  slave,  working  by 
task,  and  of  his  own  accord  at  night,  that  he  might  have  the 
more  daylight  for  his  own  purposes. 

The  negroes  greatly  enjoy  fine  blazing  fires  in  the  open 
air,  and  make  them  at  every  opportunity.  The  train  on  this 
road  was  provided  with  a  man  and  maid-servant  to  attend  to 
the  fire  and  wait  on  the  passengers — a  very  good  arrangement, 
by  the  way,  yet  to  be  adopted  on  our  own  long  passenger  trains. 
When  we  arrived  at  a  junction  where  we  were  to  change  cars,  as 
soon  as  all  the  passengers  had  left  the  train,  they  also  left ;  but 
instead  of  going  into  the  station-house  with  us,  they  immediately 
collected  some  pine  branches  and  chips,  and  getting  a  brand 
from  the  locomotive,  made  a  fire  upon  the  ground,  and  seated 
themselves  by  it.  Other  negroes  soon  began  to  join  them, 
and  as  they  approached  were  called  to,  "  Doan'  yer  cum  widout 
som'  wood1?  Doan'  yer  cum  widout  som'  wood!"  and  every  one 
had  to  make  his  contribution.  At  another  place,  near  a  cotton 
plantation,  I  found   a  woman   collecting  pine  straw  into  heaps, 


396  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

to  be  carted  t>  the  cattle-pens.  She,  too,  had  a  fire  near 
her.  "What  are  you  doing  with  a  fire,  aunty?"  "Oh, 
jus'  to  warm  my  hans  wen  dey  gits  cold,  massa."  The 
weather  was  then  almost  uncomfortably  warm  to  a  Northern 
man. 

We  were  running  during  the  forenoon,  for  a  hundred  miles 
or  more,  in  a  southerly  direction,  on  nearly  a  straight  course, 
through  about  the  middle  of  the  State  of  South  Carolina. 
The  greater  part  of  this  distance,  the  flat,  sandy  pine  barrens 
continued,  scarcely  a  foot  of  grading,  for  many  miles  at  a  time, 
having  been  required  in  the  construction  of  the  rail-road.  As 
the  swamps,  which  were  still  frequent,  were  crossed  on  piles  and 
tressel-work,  the  roads  must  have  been  built  very  cheaply — 
the  land  damages  being  nothing.  We  passed  from  the  track 
of  one  company  to  that  of  another,  several  times  during  the  day 
— the  speed  was  from  fifteen  to  twenty  miles  an  hour,  with 
usually  very  long  stoppages  at  the  stations.  A  conductor  said 
they  could  easily  run  forty  miles,  and  had  done  it,  including 
stoppages  ;  but  they  were  forbidden  now  to  make  fast  time, 
from  the  injury  it  did  the  road — the  superstructure  being  much 
more  shaken  and  liable  to  displacement  in  these  light  sands  than 
on  our  Northern  roads.  The  locomotives  that  I  saw  were  all 
made  in  Philadelphia;  the  cars  were  all  from  the  Hartford, 
Conn.,  and  Worcester,  Mass.,  manufactories,  and,  invariably, 
elegant  and  comfortable.  The  roads  seemed  to  be  doing  a 
heavy  freighting  business  with  cotton.  We  passed  at  the  turn- 
outs half  a  dozen  trains,  with  nearly  a  thousand  bales  on  each, 
but  the  number  of  passengers  was  always  small.  A  slave  coun- 
try can  never,  it  is  evident,  furnish  a  passenger  traffic  of  much 
value.      I  should  suppose  a  majority  of  the   trains,  which   I 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  397 

saw  used  in  the  South,  were  not  paying  for  the  fuel  and  wages 
expended  in  running  them. 

For  an  hour  or  two  we  got  above  the  sandy  zone,  and  into 
the  second,  middle,  or  "  wave  "  region  of  the  State.  The  sur- 
face here  was  extremely  undulating,  gracefully  swelling  and 
dipping  in  bluffs  and  dells — the  soil  a  mellow,  brown  loam,  with 
some  indications  of  fertility,  especially  in  the  valleys.  Yet  most 
of  the  ground  was  occupied  by  pine  woods  (probably  old-field 
pines,  on  exhausted  cotton-fields.)  For  a  few  miles,  on  a  gently 
sloping  surface  of  the  same  sort  of  soil,  there  were  some  enor- 
mously large  cotton-fields. 

I  saw  women  working  again,  in  large  gangs,  with  men.  In 
one  case  they  were  distributing  manure — ditch  scrapings  it  ap- 
peared to  be — and  the  mode  of  operation  was  this :  the  manure 
had  been  already  carted  into  heaps  upon  the  ground ;  a  number 
of  the  women  were  carrying  it  from  the  heap  in  baskets,  on  their 
heads,  and  one  hi  her  apron,  and  spreading  it  with  their  hands 
between  the  ridges  on  which  the  cotton  grew  last  year ;  the  rest 
followed  with  great,  long-handled,  heavy,  clumsy  hoes,  and 
pulled  down  the  ridges  over  the  manure,  and  so  made  new 
ridges  for  the  next  planting.  I  asked  a  young  planter  who 
continued  with  me  a  good  part  of  the  day,  why  they  did  not  nse 
plows.  He  said  this  was  rather  rough  land,  and  a  plow  wouldn't 
work  in  it  very  well.  It  was  light  soil,  and  smooth  enough  for 
a  parade  ground.  The  fact  is,  in  certain  parts  of  South  Carolina, 
a  plow  is  yet  an  almost  unknown  instrument  of  tillage. 

About  noon  we  turned  east,  on  a  track  running  direct  to 
Charleston.  Pine  barrens  continued  alternating  with  swamp, 
with  some  cotton  and  corn-fields  on  the  edges  of  the  latter.  A 
few  of  the  pines  were  "boxed"  for  turpentine ;  and  I  understood 


398  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

that  one  or  two  companies  from  North  Carolina  had  been  ope- 
rating here  for  several  years.  Plantations  were  not  very  often 
seen  along  the  road  through  the  sand,  but  stations,  at  which 
cotton  was  stored  and  loading,  were  comparatively  frequent. 

At  one  of  the  stations  an  empty  car  had  been  attached  to  the 
train;  I  had  gone  into  it,  and  was  standing  at  one  end  of  it, 
when  an  elderly  countryman  with  a  young  woman  and  three  little 
children  entered  and  took  seats  at  the  other.  The  old  man 
took  out  a  roll  of  deerskin,  in  which  were  bank-bills,  and  some 
small  change. 

"  How  much  did  he  say  'twould  be  ?"  he  inquired. 

"  Seventy  cents." 

"For  both  on  us?' 

"  For  each  on  us." 

"  Both  on  us,  I  reckon." 

"  Eeckon  it's  each." 

"  I've  got  jess  seventy-five  cents  in  hard  money." 

"  Give  it  to  him,  and  tell  him  it's  all  yer  got ;  reckon  he'll  let 
us  go." 

At  this  I  moved,  to  attract  their  attention  ;  the  old  man 
started,  and  looked  towards  me  for  a  moment,  and  said  no  more. 
I  soon  afterwards  walked  out  on  the  platform,  passing  him,  and 
the  conductor  came  in,  and  collected  their  fare ;  I  then  returned, 
and  stood  near  them,  looking  out  the  window  of  the  door.  The 
old  man  had  a  good-humored,  thin,  withered,  very  brown  face, 
and  there  was  a  speaking  twinkle  in  his  eye.  He  was  dressed 
in  clothes  much  of  the  Quaker  cut — a  broad-brimmed,  low  hat ; 
white  cotton  shirt,  open  in  front,  and  without  cravat,  showing 
his  hairy  breast ;  a  long-skirted,  snuff-colored  coat,  of  very  coarse 
homespun,  short  trowsers,  of  brown  drilling,  red  woolen  stock- 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  399 

ings,  and  heavy  cow-hide  shoes.  He  presently  asked  the  time 
of  day ;  I  gave  it  to  him,  and  we  continued  in  conversation,  as 
follows : 

"Eight  cold  weather." 

"Yes." 

"G'wine  to  Branchville?" 

"  I  am  going  beyond  there — to  Charleston." 

"  Ah — come  from  Hamburg  this  mornin'?" 

"  No — from  beyond  there." 

"Did  ye? — where  'd  you  come  from?" 

"From  Wilmington." 

"  How  long  yer  ben  comin'  ?" 

"  I  left  Wilmington  night  before  last,  about  ten  o'clock.  I 
have  been  ever  since  on  the  road." 

"  Eeckon  yer  a  night-bird." 

"What?" 

"  Eeckon  you  are  a  night-bird — what  we  calls  a  night-hawk, 
keeps  a  goin'  at  night,  you  know." 

"  Yes — I've  been  going  most  of  two  nights." 

"  Eeckon  so,  kinder  red  your  eyes  is.  Live  in  Charleston, 
do  ye  ?" 

"  No,  I  live  in  New  York." 

"New  York — that's  a  good  ways,  yet,  aint  it?" 

"  Yes." 

"  Eeckon  yer  arter  a  chicken,  up  here." 

"No." 

"Ah,  ha — reckon  ye  are." 

The  young  woman  laughed,  lifted  her  shoulder,  and  looked 
out  the  window. 

"  Eeckon  ye'll  get  somebody's  chicken." 


400  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

"  I'm  afraid  not." 

The  young  woman  laughed  again,  and  tossed  her  head. 

"  Oh,  reckon  ye  will — ah,  ha !  But  yer  mustn't  mind  my 
fun." 

"  Not  at  all,  not  at  all.     Where  did  you  come  from  ?" 

"  Up  here  to ;  g'wine  hum ;  g'wine  to  stop  down  here, 

next  deeper.     How  do  you  go,  w'en  you  get  to  Charleston  ?" 

"  I  am  going  on  to  New  Orleans." 

"Is  New  York  beyond  New  Orleans'?" 

"Beyond  New  Orleans'?     Oh,  no." 

"  In  New  Orleans,  is't?" 

"What?" 

u  New  York  is  somewhere  in  New  Orleans,  ain't  itV 

"No;  it's  the  other  way — beyond  Wilmington." 

"  Oh !     Been  pretty  cold  thar  ?" 

"  Tes  ;  there  was  a  foot  and  a  half  of  snow  there,  last  week,  I 
hear." 

"Lord  o'massy  !  why!  have  to  feed  all  the  cattle! — whew! — 
ha! — whew! — don't  wonner  ye  com'  away." 

"  You  are  a  farmer." 

"  Yes." 

"  Well,  I  am  a  farmer,  too." 

"  Be  ye— to  New  Yorkf ' 

"  Yes  ;  how  much  land  have  you  got  ?" 

"A  hundred  and  twenty-five  acres;  how  much  have  you?" 

"Just  about  the  same.     What's  your  land  worth,  here  ?" 

"  Some  on't — what  Ave  call  swamp-land — kinder  low  and  wet 
like,  you  know — that's  worth  five  dollars  an  acre ;  and  mainly 
it's  worth  a  dollar  and  a  half  or  two  dollars — that's  takin'  a 
common  trac'  of  upland.     What's  yours  worth?" 


SOUTH    CAROLINA    AND     GEORGIA.  401 

"  A  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  dollars." 

"What!" 

"  A  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred." 

"Dollars?" 

"Yes." 

"  Not  an  acre  V ' 

"  Yes." 

"  Good  Lord !  yer  might  as  well  buy  niggers  to  onst.  Do 
you  work  any  niggers  ?" 

"No." 

"  May  be  they  don't  have  niggers — that  is,  slaves — to  New 
York." 

"No,  we  do  not.     It's  against  the  law." 

"  Yes,  I  heerd  'twas,  some  place.  How  do  yer  get  yer  work 
lone?" 

"  I  hire  white  men — Irishmen,  generally." 

"  Do  they  work  good  ?" 

"  Yes,  better  than  negroes,  I  think,  and  don't  cost  nearly  as 
inch." 

"What  do  yer  have  to  give  'em?" 

"Eight  or  nine  dollars  a  month,  and  board,  for  common 
lands,  by  the  year." 

"  Hi,  Lordy  !  and  they  work  up  right  smart,  do  they  ?  Why, 
fer  can't  get  any  kind  of  a  good  nigger  less'n  twelve  dollars  a 
lonth." 

"And  board?" 

"  And  board  'em  ?  yes ;  and  clothe,  and  blank,  and  shoe 
'em,  too." 

He  owned  no  negroes  himself,  and  did  not  hire  any.  "  They," 
his  family,  "made  their  own  crap."     They  raised  maize,  and 


402  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

sweet  potatoes,  and  cow-peas.  He  reckoned,  in  general,  they 
made  about  three  barrels  of  maize  to  the  acre ;  sometimes,  as  much 
as  five.  He  described  to  me,  as  a  novelty,  a  plow,  with  "  a  sort 
of  a  wing,  like,  on  one  side,"  that  pushed  off,  and  turned  over  a 
slice  of  the  ground ;  from  which  it  appeared  that  he  had,  until 
recently,  never  seen  a  mould-board ;  the  common  plows  of  this 
country  being  constructed  on  the  same  principles  as  those  of  the 
Chinese,  and  only  rooting  the  ground,  like  a  hog  or  a  mole 
— not  cleaving  and  turning.  He  had  never  heard  of  work- 
ing a  plow  with  more  than  one  horse.  He  was  frank  and 
good-natured ;  embarrassed  his  daughter  by  coarse  jokes  about 
herself  and  her  babies,  and  asked  me  if  I  would  not  go  home 
with  him,  and,  when  I  declined,  pressed  me  to  come  and  see 
them  when  I  returned.  That  I  might  do  so,  he  gave  me  direc- 
tions how  to  get  to  his  farm ;  observing,  that  I  must  start  pretty 
early  in  the  day — because  it  would  not  be  safe  for  a  stranger  to 
try  to  cross  the  swamp  after  dark.  The  moment  the  train 
began  to  check  its  speed,  before  stopping  at  the  place  at  which 
he  was  to  leave,  he  said  to  his  daughter,  "  Come,  gal !  quick 
now  ;  gather  up  yer  young  ones !"  and  stepped  out,  pulling  her 
after  him,  on  to  the  platform.  As  they  walked  off*,  I  noticed 
that  he  strode  ahead,  like  an  Indian  or  a  gipsy-man,  and  she 
carried  in  her  arms  two  of  the  children  and  a  bundle,  while  the 
third  child  held  to  her  skirts. 

A  party  of  fashionably-dressed  people  took  the  train  for 
Charleston.  Two  families,  apparently,  returning  from  a  visit 
to  their  plantations.  They  came  to  the  station  in  handsome 
coaches.  Some  minutes  before  the  rest,  there  entered  the  car, 
in  which  I  was  then  again  alone,  and  reclining  on  a  bench  in 
the  corner,  an  old  nurse,  with  a  baby,  and  two  young  negro 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  403 

women,  having  care  of  half  a  dozen  children,  mostly  girls,  from 
three  to  fifteen  years  of  age.  As  they  closed  the  door,  the  negro 
girls  seemed  to  resume  a  conversation,  or  quarrel.  Their  lan- 
guage was  loud  and  obscene,  such  as  I  never  heard  before  from 
any  but  the  most  "depraved  and  beastly  women  of  the  streets. 
Upon  observing  me,  they  dropped  their  voices,  but  not  with  any 
appearance  of  shame,  and  continued  their  altercation,  until  their 
mistresses  entered.  The  white  children,  in  the  mean  time,  had 
listened,  without  any  appearance  of  wonder  or  annoyance.  The 
moment  the  ladies  opened  the  door,  they  became  silent. 

From  the  Southern  Cultivator,  June,  1855. 
"  Children  are  fond  of  the  company  of  negroes,  not  only  because  the  de- 
ference shown  them  makes  them  feel  perfectly  at  ease,  but  the  subjects  of 
conversation  are  on  a  level  with  their  capacity  ;  while  the  simple  tales,  and 
the  witch  and  ghost  stories,  so  common  among  negroes,  excite  the  young 
imagination  and  enlist  the  feelings.  If,  in  this  association,  the  child  be- 
comes familiar  with  indelicate,  vulgar,  and  lascivious  manners  and  con- 
versation, an  impression  is  made  upon  the  mind  and  heart,  which  lasts 
for  years — perhaps  for.  life.  Could  we,  in  all  cases,  trace  effects  to  their 
real  causes,  I  doubt  not  but  many  young  men  and  women,  of  respectable 
parentage  and  bright  prospects,  who  have  made  shipwreck  of  all  their 
earthly  hopes,  have  been  led  to  the  fatal  step  by  the  seeds  of  corruption 
which,  in  the  days  of  childhood  and  youth,  were  sown  in  their  hearts  by 
the  indelicate  and  lascivious  manners  and  conversation  of  their  fathers' 
negroes." 

From  an  Address  of  Chancellor  Harper,  prepared  for  and  read  before 
the  Society  for  the  Advancement  of  Learning,  of  South  Carolina. 
"  I  have  said  the  tendency  of  our  institution  is  to  elevate  the  female 
character,  as  well  as  that  of  the  other  sex,  for  similar  reasons. 

"  And,  permit  me  to  say,  that  this  elevation  of  the  female  character 
is  no  less  important  and  essential  to  us,  than  the  moral  and  intellectual 
cultivation  of  the  other  sex.  It  would,  indeed,  be  intolerable,  if,  when 
one  class  of  society  is  necessarily  degraded  in  this  respect,  no  compensa- 
tion were  made  by  the  superior  elevation  and  purity  of  the  other.     Not 


404  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

only  essential  purity  of  conduct,  but  the  utmost  purity  of  manners. 
And,  I  will  add,  though  it  may  incur  the  formidable  charge  of  affectation 
or  prudery,  a  greater  severity  of  decorum  than  is  required  elsewhere,  is 
necessary  among  us.  Always  should  be  strenuously  resisted  the  at- 
tempts, which  have  sometimes  been  made,  to  introduce  among  us  the 
freedom  of  foreign  European,  and,  especially,  of  continental  manners. 
Let  us  say:  we  will  not  have  the  manners  of  South  Carolina 
changed." 

CHARLESTON. 

Before  night,  the  train  arrived  at  Charleston,  where  I  remained 
several  days. 

Charleston,  more  than  any  town  at  the  North,  has  the  charac- 
ter of  an  old  town,  where  careful  government  and  the  influence 
of  social  organization  has  been  long  in  operation.  It  is  much 
more  metropolitan  and  convenient  than  any  other  Southern 
town;  and  yet,  it  seems  to  have  adopted  the  requirements  of 
modern  luxury  with  an  ill  grace,  and  to  be  yielding  to  the  de- 
mands of  commerce  and  the  increasing  mobility  of  civilized  men 
slowly  and  reluctantly. 

I  saw  as  much  close  packing,  filth,  and  squalor,  in  certain 
blocks,  inhabited  by  laboring  whites,  in  Charleston,  as  I  have 
witnessed  in  any  Northern  town  of  its  size ;  and  greater  evi- 
dences of  brutality  and  ruffianly  character,  than  I  have  ever 
happened  to  see,  among  an  equal  population  of  this  class,  before. 

The  frequent  drumming  which  is  heard,  the  State  military 
school,  the  cannon  in  position  on  the  parade-ground,  the  citadel, 
the  guard-house,  with  its  martial  ceremonies,  the  frequent  parades 
of  militia  (the  ranks  mainly  filled  by  foreign-born  citizens),  and, 
especially,  the  numerous  armed-police,  which  is  under  military 
discipline,  might  lead  one  to  imagine  that  the  town  was  in  a 
state  of  siege  or  revolution. 


SOUTH    CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  405 

SAVANNAH. 

Savannah,  which  is  but  half  a  day's  sail  from  Charleston,  has, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  curiously  rural  and  modest  aspect,  for  a 
place  of  its  population  and  commerce.  A  very  large  proportion 
of  the  buildings  stand  detached  from  each  other,  and  are  sur- 
rounded by  gardens,  or  courts,  shaded  by  trees,  or  occupied  by 
shrubbery.  There  are  a  great  number  of  small  public  squares, 
and  some  of  the  streets  are  double,  with  rows  of  trees  in  the 
centre. 

Charleston  and  Savannah  are  so  easily  accessible  from  the 
North,  and  are,  in  consequence,  so  much  visited,  and  so  much 
written  about,  that  there  is  no  occasion  for  me  to  particularly 
describe  them,  or  their  vicinity.  Both  towns  are  chiefly  interest- 
ing from  that  in  them  which  is  indescribable,  and  which  strangers 
cannot  be  expected  to  fully  appreciate. 

SLAVE-FUNERALS    AND    BURYING-GROUNDS. 

I  described  a  negro-funeral  that  I  witnessed  in  Eichmond,  Va. 
In  Charleston,  I  saw  one  of  a  very  different  character.  Those 
in  attendance  were  mainly  women,  and  they  all  proceeded  on 
foot  to  the  grave,  following  the  corpse,  carried  in  a  hearse.  The 
exercises  were  simple  and  decorous,  after  the  form  used  in  the 
Presbyterian  church,  and  were  conducted  by  a  well-dressed 
and  dignified  elderly  negro.  The  women  were  generally 
dressed  in  white,  and  wore  bonnets,  which  were  temporarily 
covered  with  a  kind  of  hood,  made  of  dark  cambric.  There 
was  no  show  whatever  of  feeling,  emotion,  or  excitement.  The 
grave  was  filled  by  the  negroes,  before  the  crowd,  which  was 
quite  large,  dispersed.      Besides  myself,  only  one  white  man, 


406  OUR     SLAVE      STATES. 

probably  a  policeman,  was  in  attendance.  The  burying-ground 
was  a  rough  "vacant  lot"  in  the  midst  of  the  town.  The  only 
monuments  were  a  few  wooden  posts,  and  one  small  marble 
tablet. 

While  riding,  aimlessly,  in  the  suburbs  of  Savannah,  on  re- 
turning from  a  visit  to  the  beautiful  rural  cemetery  of  the  wealthy 
whites,  which  Willis  has,  with  his  usual  facility  and  grace,  a  little 
over-pictured,  I  came  upon  a  square  field,  in  the  midst  of  an  open 
pine-wood,  partially  inclosed  with  a  dilapidated  wooden  paling. 
It  proved  to  be  a  grave-yard  for  the  negroes  of  the  town.  Dis- 
mounting, and  fastening  my  horse  to  a  gate-post,  I  walked  in, 
and  found  much,  in  the  monuments,  to  interest  me.  Some  of 
these  were  mere  billets  of  wood,  others  were  of  brick  and  mar- 
ble, and  some  were  pieces  of  plank,  cut  in  the  ordinary  form  of 
tomb-stones.  Many  family-lots  were  inclosed  with  railings,  and 
a  few  flowers  or  evergreen  shrubs  had  sometimes  been  planted 
on  the  graves ;  but  these  were  generally  broken  down  and  with- 
ered, and  the  ground  was  overgrown  with  weeds  and  briars.  1 
spent  some  time  in  examining  the  inscriptions,  the  greater  num- 
ber of  which  were  evidently  painted  by  self-taught  negroes,  and 
were  curiously  illustrative  both  of  their  condition  and  character. 
I  transcribed  a  few  of  them,  as  literally  as  possible,  as  fol- 
low: 

<;  SACRED 

TO    THE    MEMORY 

OP  HENRY.  Gleve,  ho 

Dide  January  19  1849 

Age  44." 


SOUTH    CAROLINA    AND     GEORGIA.  407 

"  BALD  WING 

In  men  of  Charles 

who  died  NOY 

20.  The  1846 

aged  62  years  Blessed  are  the 

dead  who  dieth 

in  the  Lord 

Even  so  said 

the  SPerit.    For 

the  Rest  From 

Thair" 

pL'he  remainder  rotted  off.] 


"  DEAR 

WIFE    OF 

JAMES    DELBU6 

BORN 

1814     DIED 

1852 

>  > 

In  Memr 

y,  of, 

Ma 

gare 

-t .  Born 

August 

29  and 

died  oc 

tober  29  1852 

[The  following  on  marble.] 

To  record  the  worth  fidelity  and  virtue  of  Reynolda  Watts,  (who 
died  on  the  2d  day  of  May  1829  at  the  age  of  24  years,  in  giving  birth 
to  her  3d  child). 

Reared  from  infancy  by  an  affectionate  mistress  and  trained  by  her  in 
the  paths  of  virtue,  She  was  strictly  moral  in  her  deportment,  faithful 
and  devoted  in  her  duty  and  heart  and  soul  a 

[Sand  drifted  over  the  remainder.] 


40S  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

There  were  a  few  others,  of  similar  character  to  the  above, 
erected  by  whites  to  the  memory  of  favorite  servants.  The  fol- 
lowing was  on  a  large  brick  tomb  : 

"  This  tablet  is  erected  to  record  the  demise  of  Eev.  HENRY 
CUNNINGHAM,  Founder  and  subsequent  pastor  of  the  2d  African 
Church  for  39  years,  who  yielded  his  spirit  to  its  master  the  29  of 
March  1842,  aged  83  years." 

[Followed  by  an  inscription  to  the  memory  of  Mrs.  Cun- 
ningham.] 

"  This  vault  is  erected  by  the  2d  African  Church,  as  a  token  of 
respect." 

The  following  is  upon  a  large  stone  table.  The  reader  will 
observe  its  date ;  but  I  must  add  that,  while  in  North  Carolina, 
I  heard  of  two  recent  occasions,  in  which  public  religious  ser- 
vices had  been  interrupted,  and  the  preachers — very  estimable 
colored  men — publicly  whipped. 

"  Sacred  to  the  memory  of  Andrew  Brian  pastor  of  1st  colored  Bap- 
tist church  in  Savannah.  God  was  Pleased  to  lay  his  honour  near  his 
heart  and  impress  the  worth  and  weight  of  souls  upon  his  mind  that  he 
was  constrained  to  Preach  the  Gospel  to  dieng  world,  particularly  to  the 
sable  sons  of  africa.  though  he  labored  under  many  disadvantage  yet 
thought  in  the  school  of  Christ,  he  was  able  to  bring  out  new  and  old 
out  of  the  treasury  And  he  has  done  more  good  among  the  poor  slaves 
than  all  the  learned  Doctors  in  America.  He  was  im  prisoned  for  the 
Gospel  without  any  ceremony  was  severely  whipped.  But  while  under 
the  lash  he  told  his  prosecutor  he  rejoiced  not  only  to  be  whipped  but  he 
was  willing  for  to  suffer  death  for  the  cause  of  CHRIST. 

"  He  continued  preaching  the  Gospel  until  Oct.  6  1812.  He  was 
supposed  to  be  96  years  of  age,  his  remains  were  interd  with  peculiar 
respect  an  address  was  delivered  by  the  Rev.  Mr  Johnston  Dr.  Kolluck 
Thomas  Williams  &  Henry  Cunningham  He  was  an  honour  to  human 
nature  an  ornament  to  religion  and  a  friend  to  mankind.  'His  memory 
is  still  precious  in  the  (hearts)  of  the  living. 

"  Afflicted  long  he  bore  the  rod 
With  calm  submission  to  his  maker  God, 


SOUTH    CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  409 

His  mind  was  tranquil  and  serene 
No  terrors  in  his  looks  was  seen 
A  Saviouiis  smile  dispelled  the  gloom 
And  smoothed  the  passage  to  the  tomb. 

"  I  heard  a  voice  from  Heaven  saying  unto  me,  Write,  Blessed  are 
the  dead  which  die  in  the  Lord  from  henceforth !  Tea  saith  the  Spirit 
that  they  may  rest  from  the  labours. 

"  This  stone  is  erected  by  the  First  Colored  Church  as  a  token  of  love 
for  their  most  faithful  pastor.     A.  D.  1821." 


THE    RICE    COAST. 

Plantation,  February  — . 

I  left  town  yesterday  morning,  on  horseback,  with  a  letter  in 
my  pocket  to  Mr.  X.,  a  rice-planter,  under  whose  roof  I  am  now 
writing.  The  weather  was  fine,  and,  indeed,  since  I  left  Vir- 
ginia, the  weather,  for  out-of-door  purposes,  has  been  as  fine  as 
can  be  imagined.  The  exercise  of  walking  or  of  riding,  warms 
one,  at  any  time  between  sunrise  and  sunset,  sufficiently  to 
allow  an  overcoat  to  be  dispensed  with,  while  the  air  is  yet  brisk 
and  stimulating.  The  public-houses  are  overcrowded  with 
Northerners,  who  congratulate  themselves  on  having  escaped 
from  the  severe  cold,  of  which  they  hear  from  home. 

All,  however,  who  know  the  country,  out  of  the  large  towns, 

say  that  they  have  suffered  more  from  cold  here,  than  ever  at 

the  North ;  because,  except  at  a  few  first  class  hotels,  and  in  the 

better  sort  of  mansions  and  plantation  residences,  any  provision 

for  keeping  houses  warm  is  so  entirely  neglected.     It  is,  indeed, 

too  cool  to  sit  quietly,  even  at  midday,  out  of  sunshine,  and  at 

night  it  is  often  frosty.     As  a  general  rule,  with  such  exceptions 

as  I  have  indicated,  it  will  be  full  two  hours  after  one  has  asked 

for  a  fire  in  his  room,  before  the  servants  can  be  got  to  make  it. 
18 


■ 


410  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

The  idea  of  closing  a  door  or  window  to  exclude  cold  air,  seems 
really  never  to  have  reached  any  of  the  negroes.  From  the 
time  I  left  Eichmond,  until  I  arrived  at  Charleston,  I  never  hut 
once  knew  a  servant  to  close  a  door  on  leaving  a  room,  unless 
he  was  requested  at  the  moment  to  do  so. 

The  public  houses  of  the  smaller  towns,  and  the  country 
houses  generally,  are  so  loosely  built,  and  so  rarely  have  un- 
broken glass  windows,  that  to  sit  by  a  fire,  and  to  avoid  remain- 
ing in  a  draught  at  the  same  time,  is  never  to  be  expected. 

As  the  number  of  Northerners,  and  especially  of  invalids,  who 
come  hither  in  winter,  is  every  year  increasing,  more  comfortable 
accommodations  along  the  line  of  travel  must  soon  be  provided  ; 
if  not  by  native,  then  by  Northern  enterprise.  Some  of  the 
hotels  in  Florida,  indeed,  are  already,  I  understand,  under  the 
management  of  Northerners ;  and  this  winter  cooks  and  waiters 
have  been  procured  for  them  from  the  North.  I  observe,  also, 
that  one  of  them  advertises  that  meats  and  vegetables  are 
received   by   every  steamer  from  New  York. 

As  soon  as  comfortable  quarters,  and  means  of  conveyance 
are  extensively  provided,  at  not  immoderately  great  expense, 
there  must  be  a  great  migration  here  every  winter.  The 
climate  and  the  scenery,  as  well  as  the  society  of  the  more 
wealthy  planters'  families,  are  attractive,  not  to  invalids  alone, 
but  even  more  to  men  and  women  who  are  able  to  enjoy  invigor- 
ating recreations.  Nowhere  in  the  world  could  a  man,  with  a 
sound  body  and  a  quiet  conscience,  live  more  pleasantly,  at 
least,  as  a  guest,  it  seems  to  me,  than  here  where  I  am.  I  was 
awakened  this  morning  by  a  servant  making  a  fire  for  me  to 
dress  by.  Opening  the  window,  I  found  a  clear,  brisk  air,  but 
without  frost — the  mercury  standing  at  35°  F.    There  was  not  a 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA.      411 

sign  of  winter,  except  that  a  few  cypress  trees,  hung  with  seed, 
attached  to  pretty  pendulous  tassels,  were  leafless.  A  grove 
which  surrounded  the  house  was  all  in  dark  verdure ;  there  were 
green  oranges  on  trees  nearer  the  window  ;  the  buds  were  swell- 
ing on  a  jessamine-vine,  and  a  number  of  camelia-japonicas  were 
in  full  bloom  ;  one  of  them,  at  least  seven  feet  high,  and  a  large, 
compact  shrub,  must  have  had  several  hundred  blossoms  on  it. 
Sparrows  were  chirping,  doves  cooing,  and  a  mocking-bird 
whistling  loudly.  I  walked  to  the  stable,  and  saw  the  clean  and 
neatly-dressed  negroes  grooming  thorough-bred  horses.  They 
pawed  the  ground,  and  tossed  their  heads,  and  drew  deep  inspira- 
tions, and  danced  as  they  were  led  out,  in  exuberance  of  animal 
spirits,  and  I  felt  as  they  did.  We  drove  ten  miles  to  church,  in 
the  forenoon,  with  the  carriage-top  thrown  back,  and  with  our 
overcoats  laid  aside ;  nevertheless,  when  we  returned,  and  came 
into  the  house,  we  found  a  crackling  wood  fire,  in  the  old- 
fashioned  fire-place,  as  comfortable  as  it  was  cheerful.  Two 
lads,  the  sons  of  my  host,  had  returned  the  night  before 
from  a  "marooning  party,"  with  a  boat-load  of  venison, 
wild  fowl  and  fish,  and  at  dinner  this  evening  there  were 
delicacies  which  are  not  to  be  had  in  perfection,  it  is  said, 
anywhere  else  than  on  a  rice-plantation.  The  woods  and 
waters  around  us  abound,  not  only  with  game,  but  with  most 
interesting  subjects  of  observation  to  the  naturalist  and  the 
artist.  Everything  encourages  cheerfulness,  and  invites  to 
healthful  life. 

Now  to  think  how  people  are  baking  in  their  oven-houses  at 
home,  or  waddling  out  in  the  deep  snow  or  mud,  or  across  the 
frozen  ruts,  wrapped  up  to  a  Falstaffian  rotundity  in  flannels  and 

rs,  one  can  but  wonder  that  those  who  have  means  stay  there, 


4:12  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

any  more  than  these  stay  here  in  summer ;  and  that  my  host 
would  no  more  think  of  doing  than  the  wild-goose. 

But  I  must  tell  how  I  got  here,  and  what  I  saw  by  the  way. 

A  narrow  belt  of  cleared  land — "  vacant  lots" — only  separa- 
ted the  town  from  the  pine-forest — that  great  broad  forest 
which  extends  uninterruptedly,  and  merely  dotted  with  a  fevt 
small  corn  and  cotton-fields,  from  Delaware  to  Louisiana. 

Having  some  doubt  about  the  road,  I  asked  a  direction  of  a 
man  on  horseback,  who  overtook  and  Mas  passing  me.  In 
reply,  he  said  it  was  a  very  straight  road,  and  we  should  go  in 
company,  for  a  mile  or  two.  He  inquired  if  I  was  a  stranger ; 
and,  when  he  heard  that  I  was  from  the  North,  and  now  first 
visiting  the  South,  he  remarked  that  there  was  "  no  better  place 
for  me  to  go  to  than  that  for.  which  I  was  bound.  Mr.  X.  was  a 
very  fine  man — rich,  got  a  splendid  plantation,  lived  well,  had 
plenty  of  company  always,  and  there  were  a  number  of  other 
show  plantations  near  his.  He  reckoned  I  would  visit  some  of 
them." 

I  asked  what  he  called  "  show  plantations."  "  Plantations 
belonging  to  rich  people,"  he  said,  "  where  they  had  everything 
fixed  up  nice.  There  were  several  places  that  had  that  name ; 
their  owners  always  went  out  and  lived  on  them  part  of  the  year, 
and  then  they  kept  a  kind  of  open  house,  and  were  always  ready 
to  receive  company.     He  reckoned  I  might  go  and  stay  a  month 

round  on  them  kind  of  places  on river,  and  it  would  not 

cost  me  a  cent.  They  always  had  a  great  many  Northerners 
going  to  see  them,  those  gentlemen  had.  Almost  every  Northern- 
er, that  came  here,  was  invited  right  out,  to  visit  some  of  them, 
and,  in  summer,  a  good  many  of  them  went  to  the  North  them- 
selves." 


SOUTH    CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  413 

During  the  forenoon,  my  road  continued  broad  and  straight, 
i,nd  I  was  told  that  it  was  the  chief  outlet  and  thoroughfare  of 
a  very  extensive  agricultural  district.  There  was  very  little  land 
in  cultivation  within  sight  of  the  road,  however;  not  a  mile 
of  it  fenced,  in  twenty,  and  the  only  houses  were  log-cabins. 
The  soil  varied  from  a  coarse,  clean,  yellow  sand,  to  a  dark, 
brown,  sandy  loam.  There  were  indications  that  most  of  the 
land  had,  at  some  time,  been  under  cultivation — had  been  worn 
out,  and  deserted. 

Long  teams  of  mules,  driven  by  negroes,  toiled  slowly  towards 
the  town,  with  loads  of  rice,  or  cotton.  A  stage-coach,  with 
six  horses  to  hasten  it  through  the  heavy  road,  covered  me,  as 
it  passed,  with  dust ;  and,  once  or  twice,  I  met  a  stylish  car- 
riage (not  the  old  Virginia  "family  chariot,  with  its  six  well-con- 
ditioned grays,"  but  its  descendant  in  fashion),  with  fashionably- 
clad  gentlemen  and  ladies,  and  primly-liveried  negro-servants ; 
but  much  the  greatest  traffic  of  the  road  was  done  by  small  one- 
horse  carts,  driven  by  white  men,  or  women. 

"  THE    CKACKEKS." 

These  carts,  all  but  their  wheels,  which  come  from  the  North, 
look  as  if  they  were  made  by  their  owners,  in  the  woods,  with 
no  better  tools  than  axes  and  jack-knives.  Very  little  iron  is 
used  in  their  construction ;  the  different  parts  being  held  together 
by  wooden  pins,  and  lashings  of  hide.  The  harness  is  made 
chiefly  of  ropes  and  undressed  hide ;  but  there  is  always  a  high- 
peaked  riding-saddle,  in  which  the  driver  prefers  to  sit,  rather 
than  on  his  cart.  Once,  I  met  a  woman  riding  in  this  way,  with 
a  load  of  children  in  the  cart  behind  her.  From  the  axle-tree, 
often  hung  a  gourd,  or  an  iron  kettle.     One  man  carried  a  rifle 


414  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

on  his  pommel.  Sometimes,  these  carts  would  contain  a  single 
bale  of  cotton,  more  commonly,  an  assorted  cargo  of  maize, 
sweet  potatoes,  poultry,  game,  hides,  and  peltry,  with,  always, 
some  bundles  of  corn-leaves,  to  be  fed  to  the  horse.  Women 
and  children  were  often  passengers,  or  traveled  on  foot,  in  com- 
pany with  the  carts,  which  were  usually  furnished  with  a  low  tilt. 
Many  of  them,  I  found,  had  been  two  or  three  days  on  the  road, 
bringing  down  a  little  crop  to  market;  whole  families  coming 
with  it,  to  get  reclothed  with  the  proceeds. 

The  men  with  the  carts  were  generally  slight,  with  high  cheek- 
bones and  sunken  eyes,  and  were  of  less  than  the  usual  stature 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  They  were  dressed  in  long-skirted 
homespun  coats,  wore  slouched  hats,  and  heavy  boots,  outside 
their  trowsers.  As  they  met  me,  they  usually  bowed,  and  often 
offered  a  remark  upon  the  weather,  or  the  roads,  in  a  bold,  but 
not  uncourteous  manner — showing  themselves  to  be,  at  least,  in 
one  respect,  better  off  than  the  majority  of  European  peasants, 
whose  educated  servility  of  character  rarely  fails  to  manifest 
itself,  when  they  meet  a  well-dressed  stranger. 

The  household  markets  of  most  of  the  Southern  towns  seem 
to  be  mainly  supplied  by  the  poor  country  people,  who,  driving 
in  in  this  style,  bring  all  sorts  of  produce  to  exchange  for  such 
small  stores  and  articles  of  apparel  as  they  must  needs  obtain 
from  the  shops.  Sometimes,  owing  to  the  great  extent  of  the 
back  country  from  which  the  supplies  are  gathered,  they  are 
offered  in  great  abundance  and  variety ;  at  other  times,  from  the 
want  of  regular  market-men,  there  will  be  a  scarcity,  and  prices 
will  be  very  high. 

A  stranger  cannot  but  express  surprise  and  amusement  at  the 
appearance  and  manners  of  these  country  traffickers  in  the  mar- 


SOUTH    CAROLINA    AND    GEORGIA. 


415 


ket-place.  The  "wild  Irish"  hardly  differ  more  from  the  Eng- 
lish gentry,  than  these  rustics  from  the  better  class  of  planters 
and  towns-people,  with  whom  the  traveler  more  commonly 
comes  in  contact.  Their  language,  even,  is  almost  incompre- 
hensible, and  seems  exceedingly  droll,  to  a  Northern  man.  I 
have  found  it  quite  impossible  to  report  it. 


I  shall  not  soon  forget  the  figure  of  a  little  old  white  woman, 
wearing  a  man's  hat,  smoking  a  pipe,  driving  a  little  black  bull 
with  reins ;  sitting,  herself,  bolt  upright,  upon  the  axle-tree  oi 
a  little  truck,  on  which  she  was  returning  from  market.  I  was 
riding  with  a  gentleman  of  the  town  at  the  time,  and,  as  she 
bowed  to  him  with  an  expression  of  ineffable  self-satisfaction,  I 
asked  if  he  knew  her.  He  had  known  her  for  twenty  years,  he 
said,  and  until  lately  she  had  always  come  into  town  about  once 


£16  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

a  week,  on  foot,  bringing  fowls,  eggs,  potatoes,  or  herbs,  for 
sale,  in  a  basket.  The  bull  she  had  probably  picked  up  astray, 
when  a  calf,  and  reared  and  broken  it  herself ;  and  the  cart  and 
harness  she  had  made  herself;  but  he  did  not  tbink  anybody 
in  the  land  felt  richer  than  she   did  now,   or  prouder   of  her 

establishment. 

In  the  afternoon,  I  left  the  main  road,  and,  towards  night, 

reached  a  much  more  cultivated  district.  The  forest  of  pines 
still  extended  uninterruptedly  on  one  side  of  the  way,  but  on 
the  other  was  a  continued  succession  of  very  large  fields,  of  rich 
dark  soil — evidently  reclaimed  swamp-land — which  had  been  cul- 
tivated the  previous  year,  in  Sea  Island  cotton,  or  maize.  Be- 
yond them,  a  flat  surface  of  still  lower  land,  with  a  silver  thread 
of  water  curling  through  it,  extended,  Holland-like,  to  the  hori- 
zon. Usually  at  as  great  a  distance  as  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
from  the  road,  and  from  a  half  mile  to  a  mile  apart,  were  the 
residences  of  the  planters — large  white  houses,  with  groves  of 
evergreen  trees  about  them ;  and  between  these  and  the  road 
were  little  villages  of  slave-cabins. 

My  directions  not  having  been  sufficiently  explicit,  I  rode  in, 
by  a  private  lane,  to  one  of  these.  It  consisted  of  some  thirty 
neatly-whitewashed  cottages,  with  a  broad  avenue,  planted  with 
Pride-of-China  trees  between  them. 

The  cottages  were  framed  buildings,  boarded  on  the  outside, 
with  shingle  roofs  and  brick  chimneys ;  they  stood  fifty  feet 
apart,  with  gardens  and  pig-yards,  enclosed  by  palings,  between 
them.  At  one,  which  was  evidently  the  "  sick  house,"  or 
hospital,  there  were  several  negroes,  of  both  sexes,  wrapped  in 
blankets,  and  reclining  on  the  door  steps  or  on  the  ground, 
basking  in  the  sunshine.     Some  of  them  looked  ill,  but  all  were 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  417 

chatting  and  laughing  as  I  rode  up  to  make  an  inquiry.  I 
learned  that  it  was  not  the  plantation  I  was  intending  to  visit, 
and  received  a  direction,  as  usual,  so  indistinct  and  incorre^ 
that  it  led  me  wrong. 

At  another  plantation  which  I  soon  afterwards  reached,  i 
found  the  "  settlement "  arranged  in  the  same  way,  the  cabins 
only  being  of  a  slightly  different  form.  In  tbe  middle  of  one 
row  was  a  well-house,  and  opposite  it,  on  the  other  row,  was  a 
mill-house,  with  stones,  at  which  the  negroes  grind  their  corn. 
It  is  a  kind  of  pestle  and  mortar ;  and  I  was  informed  afterwards 
that  the  negroes  prefer  to  take  their  allowance  of  corn  and  crack 
it  for  themselves,  rather  than  to  receive  meal,  because  they 
think  the  mill-ground  meal  does  not  make  as  sweet  bread. 

At  the  head  of  the  settlement,  in  a  garden  looking  down  the 
street,  was  an  overseer's  house,  and  here  the  road  divided,  run- 
ning each  way  at  right  angles ;  on  one  side  to  barns  and  a 
landing  on  the  river,  on  the  other  toward  the  mansion  of  the 
proprietor.  A  negro  boy  opened  the  gate  of  the  latter,  and  I 
entered. 

On  either  side,  at  fifty  feet  distant,  were  rows  of  old  live  oak 
trees,  their  branches  and  twigs  slightly  hung  with  a  delicate 
fringe  of  gray  moss,  and  their  dark,  shining,  green  foliage,  meet- 
ing and  intermingling  naturally  but  densely  overhead.  The 
sunlight  streamed  through  and  played  aslant  the  lustrous  leaves, 
and  fluttering,  pendulous  moss ;  the  arch  was  low  and  broad ; 
the  trunks  were  huge  and  gnarled,  and  there  was  a  heavy  groin- 
ing of  strong,  rough,  knotty  branches.  I  stopped  my  horse  and 
held  my  breath ;  for  I  have  hardly  in  all  my  life  seen  anything 
so   impressively   grand   and   beautiful.     I   thought  of  old  Kit 

North's  rhapsody  on  trees  ;  and  it  was  no  rhapsody — it  was  all 
18* 


418  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

here  and  real :  "  Light,  shade,  shelter,  coolness,  freshness,  music, 
dew,  and  dreams  dropping  through  their  umbrageous  twilight — ! 
dropping  direct,  soft,  sweet,  soothing,  and  restorative  from 
heaven." 

Alas !  no  angels  ;  only  little  black  babies,  toddling  about  with 
an  older  child  or  two  to  watch  them,  occupied  the  aisle.  At  the 
upper  end  was  the  owner's  mansion,  with  a  circular  court-yard 
around  it,  and  an  irregular  plantation  of  great  trees ;  one  of  the 
oaks,  as  I  afterwards  learned,  seven  feet  in  diameter  of  trunk, 
and  Covering  with  its  branches  a  circle  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  feet  in  diameter.  As  I  approached  it,  a  smart  servant 
came  out  to  take  my  horse.  I  obtained  from  him  a  direction 
to  the  residence  of  the  gentleman  I  was  searching  for,  and  rode 
away,  glad  that  I  had  stumbled  into  so  charming  a  place. 

After  riding  a  few  miles  further  I  reached  my  destination. 

A    RICE    PLANTATION. 

Mr.  X.  has  two  plantations  on  the  river,  besides  a  large  tract 
of  poor  pine  forest  land,  extending  some  miles  back  upon  the 
upland,  and  reaching  above  the  malarious  region.  In  the  upper 
part  of  this  pine  land  is  a  house,  occupied  by  his  overseer  during 
the  malarious  season,  when  it  is  dangerous  for  any  but  negroes 
to  remain  during  the  night  in  the  vicinity  of  the  swamps  or  rice- 
fields.  Even  those  few  who  have  been  born,  in  the  region,  and 
have  grown  up  subject  to  the  malaria,  are  generally  weakly  and 
short-lived.  The  negroes  do  not  enjoy  as  good  health  on  rice 
plantations  as  elsewhere;  and  the  greater  difficulty  with  which 
their  lives  are  preserved,  through  infancy  especially,  shows  that 
the  subtle  poison  of  the  miasma  is  not  innocuous  to  them ;  but 
Mr.  X.  boasts  a  steady  increase  of  his  negro  stock  of  five  per 


SOUTH    CAROLINA    AND     GEORGIA.  419 

cent,  per  annum,  which  is  better  than  is  averaged  on  the  planta- 
tions of  the  interior. 

As  to  the  degree  of  danger  to  others,  "  I  would  as  soon  stand 
fifty  feet  from  the  best  Kentucky  rifleman  and  be  shot  at  by 
the  hour,  as  to  spend  a  night  on  my  plantation  in  summer," 
a  Charleston  gentleman  said  to  me.  And  the  following  two 
instances  of  the  deadly  work  it  sometimes  does  were  mentioned 
to  me  by  another :  A  party  of  six  ladies  and  gentlemen  went 
out  of  town  to  spend  a  day  at  the  mansion  of  a  rice-planter,  on 
an  island.  By  an  accident  to  their  boat,  their  return  before  night 
was  prevented,  and  they  went  back  and  shut  themselves  within 
the  house,  had  fires  made,  around  which  they  sat  all  night,  and 
took  every  other  precaution  to  guard  against  the  miasma.  Never- 
theless, four  of  them  died  from  its  effects,  within  a  week ;  and 
the  other  two  suffered  severely,  Two  brothers  owned  a  plantation 
on  which  they  had  spent  the  winter ;  one  of  them,  as  summer 
approached,  was  careful  to  go  to  another  residence  every  night ; 
the  other  delayed  to  do  so  until  it  was  too  late.  One  morning 
he  was  found  to  be  ill ;  a  physician  could  not  be  procured  until 
late  in  the  afternoon,  by  which  time  his  recovery  was  hopeless. 
The  sick  man  besought  his  brother  not  to  hazard  his  own  life 
by  remaining  with  him ;  and  he  was  obliged,  before  the  sun  set, 
to  take  the  last  farewell,  and  leave  him  with  the  servants,  in 
whose  care,  in  the  course  of  the  night,  he  died. 

The  plantation  which  contains  Mr.  X.'s  winter  residence,  has 
but  a  small  extent  of  rice  land,  the  greater  part  of  it  being 
reclaimed  upland  swamp  soil,  suitable  for  the  culture  of  Sea 
Island  cotton,  which,  at  the  present  market,  might  be  grown 
upon  it  with  profit.  But,  as  his  force  of  slaves  has  ordinarily 
been  more  profitably  engaged  in  the  rice-fields,  all  this  has  been 


420  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

for  many  years  "  turned  out,"  and  is  now  overgrown  with  pines. 
The  other  plantation  contains  over  five  hundred  acres  of  rice- 
land,  fitted  for  irrigation;  the  remainder  is  unusually  fertile, 
reclaimed  upland  swamp,  and  some  hundred  acres  of  it  are  culti- 
vated for  maize  and  Sea  Island  cotton. 

There  is  a  "  negro  settlement"  on  each ;  but  both  plantations, 
although  a  mile  or  two  apart,  are  worked  together  as  one,  under 
one  overseer — the  hands  being  drafted  from  one  to  another  as 
their  labor  is  required.  Somewhat  over  seven  hundred  acres  are 
at  the  present  time  under  the  plow  in  the  two  plantations : 
the  whole  number  of  negroes  is  two  hundred,  and  they  are 
reckoned  to  be  equal  to  about  one  hundred  prime  hands — an 
unusual  strength  for  that  number  of  all  classes.  The  overseer 
lives,  in  winter,  near  the  settlement  of  the  larger  plantation, 
Mr.  X.  near  that  of  the  smaller.      4 

It  is  an  old  family  estate,  inherited  by  Mr.  X.'s  wife,  who, 
with  her  children,  were  born  and  brought  up  upon  it  in  close 
intimacy  with  the  negroes,  a  large  proportion  of  whom  were 
also  included  in  her  inheritance,  or  have  been  since  born  upon 
the  estate.  Mr.  X.  himself  is  a  New  England  farmer's  son,  and 
has  been  a  successful  merchant  and  manufacturer.  He  is  also  a 
religious  man,  without  the  dementifying  bigotry  or  self-important 
humility,  so  frequently  implied  by  that  appellation  to  a  New 
Englander,  but  generous,  composed  and  cheerful  in  disposition, 
as  well  as  conscientious. 

The  patriarchal  institution  should  be  seen  here  under  its  most 
favorable  aspects ;  not  only  from  the  ties  of  long  family  associa- 
tion, common  traditions,  common  memories,  and,  if  ever,  com- 
mon interests,  between  the  slaves  and  their  rulers,  but,  also, 
from  the  practical  talent  for  organization  and  administration, 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  421 

gainad  among  the  rugged  fields,  the  complicated  looms,  and  the 
exact  and  comprehensive  counting-houses  of  New  England, 
which  directs  the  labor. 

The  house-servants  are  more  intelligent,  understand  and  per- 
form their  duties  better,  and  are  more  appropriately  dressed, 
than  any  I  have  seen  before.  The  labor  required  of  them  is 
light,  and  they  are  treated  with  much  more  consideration  for 
their  health  and  comfort  than  is  usually  given  to  that  of  free 
domestics.  They  live  in  brick  cabins,  adjoining  the  house  and 
stables,  and  one  of  these,  into  which  I  have  looked,  is  neatly 
and  comfortably  furnished.  Several  of  the  house-servants,  as  is 
usual,  are  mulattoes,  and  good-looking.  The  mulattoes  are  gene- 
rally preferred  for  in-door  occupations.  Slaves  brought  up  to 
house-work  dread  to  be  employed  at  field-labor ;  and  those  accus- 
tomed to  the  comparatively  unconstrained  life  of  the  negro-set- 
tlement, detest  the  close  control  and  careful  movements  required 
of  the  house-servants.  It  is  a  punishment  for  a  lazy  field-hand, 
to  employ  him  in  menial  duties  at  the  house,  as  it  is  to 
set  a  sneaking  sailor  to  do  the  work  of  a  cabin-servant ;  and  it 
is  equally  a  punishment  to  a  neglectful  house-servant,  to  banish 
him  to  the  field-gangs.  All  the  household  economy  is,  of  course, 
carried  on  in  a  style  appropriate  to  a  wealthy  gentleman's 
residence — not  more  so,  nor  less  so,  that  I  observe,  than  in  an 
establishment  of  similar  grade  at  the  North.  »J 

It  is  a  custom  with  Mr.  X.,  when  on  the  estate,  to  look  each 
day  at  all  the  work  going  on,  inspect  the  buildings,  boats,  em- 
bankments and  sluice-ways,  and  examine  the  sick.  Yesterday 
I  accompanied  him  in  one  of  these  daily  rounds. 

After  a  ride  of  several  miles  through  the  woods,  in  the  rear  of 
the  plantations,  we  came  to  his  largest  negro-settlement.     There 


422  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

was  a  street,  or  common,  two  hundred  feet  wide,  on  which  the 
cabins  of  the  negroes  fronted.  Each  cabin  was  a  framed  build- 
ing, the  walls  boarded  and  whitewashed  on  the  outside,  lathed 
and  plastered  within,  the  roof  shingled;  forty-two  feet  long, 
twenty-one  feet  wide,  divided  into  two  family  tenements,  each 
twenty-one  by  twenty-one ;  each  tenement  divided  into  three 
rooms — one,  the  common  household  apartment,  twenty-one  by 
ten ;  each  of  the  others  (bed-rooms),  ten  by  ten.  There  was  a 
brick  fire-place  in  the  middle  of  the  long  side  of  each  living 
room,  the  chimneys  rising  in  one,  in  the  middle  of  the  roof. 
Besides  these  rooms,  each  tenement  had  a  cock-loft,  entered  by 
steps  from  the  household  room.  Each  tenement  is  occupied,  on 
an  average,  by  five  persons.  There  were  in  them  closets,  with 
locks  and  keys,  and  a  varying  quantity  of  rude  furniture.  Each 
cabin  stood  two  hundred  feet  from  the  next,  and  the  street  in 
front  of  them  being  two  hundred  feet  wide,  they  were  just  that 
distance  apart  each  way.  The  people  were  nearly  all  absent  at 
work,  and  had  locked  their  outer  doors,  taking  the  keys  with 
them.  Each  cabin  has  a  front  and  back  door,  and  each  room  a 
window,  closed  by  a  wooden  shutter,  swinging  outward,  on 
hinges.  Between  each  tenement  and  the  next  house,  is  a  small 
piece  of  ground,  inclosed  with  palings,  in  which  are  coops  of 
fowl  with  chickens,  hovels  for  nests,  and  for  sows  with  pig. 
There  were  a  great  many  fowls  in  the  street.  The  negroes' 
swine  are  allowed  to  run  in  the  woods,  each  owner  having  his 
own  distinguished  by  a  peculiar  mark.  In  the  rear  of  the  yards 
were  gardens — a  half-acre  to  each  family.  Internally  the  cabins 
appeared  dirty  and  disordered,  which  was  rather  a  pleasant  indi- 
cation that  their  home-life  was  not  much  interfered  with,  though 
I  found  certain  police  regulations  were  enforced. 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA. 


423 


The  cabin  nearest  the  overseer's  house  was  used  as  a  nursery. 
Having  driven  up  to  this,  Mr.  X.  inquired  first  of  an  old  nurse 


how  the  children  were ;  whether  there  had  been  any  births  since 
his  last  visit;  spoke  to  two  convalescent  young  mothers,  that 
were  lounging  on  the  floor  of  the  portico,  with  the  children,  and 
then  asked  if  there  were  any  sick  people. 

"  Nobody,  oney  dat  boy,  Sam,  sar." 

"What  Sam  is  that?" 

"Dat  little  Sam,  sar;  Tom's  Sue's  Sam,  sar." 

"What's  the  matter  with  him?" 

"Don'  'spec  dere's  noting  much   de  matter  wid   him  now, 


t 


424  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

sar.  He  came  in  Sa'dy,  complainin'  he  had  de  stomach-ache, 
an'  I  gin  him  some  ile,  sar ;  'spec  he  mus'  be  well,  dis  time,  but 
he  din  go  out  dis  mornin'." 

"  Well,  I'll  see  to  him." 

Mr.  X.  went  to  Tom's  Sue's  cabin,  looked  at  the  boy,  and, 
concluding  that  he  was  well,  though  he  lay  abed,  and  pretended 
to  cry  with  pain,  ordered  him  to  go  out  to  work.  Then,  meet- 
ing the  overseer,  who  was  just  riding  away,  on  some  business  off 
the  plantation,  he  remained  some  time  in  conversation  with  him, 
while  I  occupied  myself  in  making  a  sketch  of  the  nursery  and 
the  street  of  the  settlement  in  my  note-book.  On  the  verandah 
and  the  steps  of  the  nursery,  there  were  twenty-seven  children, 
most  of  them  infants,  that  had  been  left  there  by  their  mothers, 
while  they  were  working  their  tasks  in  the  fields.  They  probably 
make  a  visit  to  them  once  or  twice  during  the  day,  to  nurse 
them,  and  receive  them  to  take  to  their  cabins,  or  where  they 
like,  when  they  have  finished  their  tasks — generally  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  afternoon*  The  older  children  were  fed  with  porridge, 
by  the  general  nurse.  A  number  of  girls,  eight  or  ten  years  old, 
were  occupied  in  holding  and  tending  the  youngest  infants. 
Those  a  little  older — the  crawlers — were  in  the  pen,  and  those 
big  enough  to  toddle  were  playing  on  the  steps,  or  before  the 
house.  Some  of  these,  with  two  or  three  bigger  ones,  were  sing- 
ing and  dancing  about  a  fire  that  they  had  made  on  the  ground. 
They  were  not  at  all  disturbed  or  interrupted  in  their  amuse- 
ment by  the  presence  of  their  owner  and  myself.  At  twelve 
years  of  age,  the  children  are  first  put  to  regular  field-work ; 
until  then  no  labor  is  required  of  them,  except,  perhaps,  occa- 
sionally, they  are  charged  with  some  light  kind  of  duty,  such  as 
frightening  birds  from  corn.     When  first  sent  to  the  field,  one- 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  425 

quarter  of  an  able-bodied  band's  day's  work  is  ordinarily  allotted 
to  tbem,  as  tbeir  task. 

But  very  few  of  tbe  babies  were  in  arms ;  suck  as  were  not, 
generally  lay  on  the  floor,  rolling  about,  or  sat  still,  sucking  their 
thumbs.  The  nurse  was  a  kind-looking  old  negro  woman,  with, 
no  doubt,  philoprogenitiveness  well  developed ;  but  she  paid 
very  little  attention  to  them,  only  sometimes  chicling  the  older 
ones  for  laughing  or  singing  too  loud.  I  watched  for  half  an 
hour,  and  in  all  that  time  not  a  baby  of  them  began  to  cry ;  nor 
have  I  ever  heard  one,  at  two  or  three  other  plantation-nurseries 
which  I  have  visited.-  I  remember,  in  Amsterdam,  to  have  seen 
two  or  three  similar  collections  of  children,  voluntarily  deposited 
by  their  mothers,  who  went  out  from  home  to  work.  These 
seemed  to  be  looked  out  for  by  two  or  three  poor  women,  who 
probably  received  a  small  fee  for  their  trouble,  from  the  parent 
thus  relieved.  Not  being  able  to  converse  in  Dutch,  I  could  get 
no  particular  information  about  it ;  but  I  especially  noticed,  in 
each  case,  that  there  was  no  crying  or  fretting.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  appeared  to  be  peculiarly  well-disposed  and  jolly, 
as  if  they  were  already  on  the  straight  road  to  the  right  place, 
and  were  fully  satisfied  with  the  vehicles  they  had  got  to  drive 
through  the  world.  They  had,  in  short,  thus  early  learned  that 
it  did  not  do  any  good  to  cry — for  the  nurse  couldn't,  if  she 
would,  feed,  or  cuddle,  or  play  with  one  every  time  she  was 
wanted  to.  I  make  a  note  of  it,  as  indicating  how  young  the 
little  twig  is  bent,  how  early  the  formation  of  habits  commences, 
and  that,  even  in  babyhood,  the  "product  of  happiness  is  to  be 
found,  not  so  much  in  increasing  your  numerator,  as  in  lessen- 
ing your  denominator." 

From  the  settlement,  we  drove  to  the  "mill" — not  a  flouring 


426  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

mill,  though  I  believe  there  is  a  run  of  stones  in  it — but  a  mon- 
ster barn,  with  more  extensive  and  better  machinery  for  thresh- 
ing and  storing  rice,  driven  by  a  steam-engine,  than  I  have  ever 
seen  used  for  grain  on  any  farm  in  Europe  or  America  before. 
Adjoining  the  mill-house  were  shops  and  sheds,  in  which  black- 
smiths, carpenters,  and  other  mechanics — all  slaves,  belonging  to 
Mr.  X. — were  at  work.  He  called  my  attention  to  the  excel- 
lence of  their  workmanship,  and  said  that  they  exercised  as 
much  ingenuity  and  skill  as  the  ordinary  mechanics  that  he  was 
used  to  employ  in  New  England.  He  pointed  out  to  me  some 
carpenter's  work,  a  part  of  which  had  been -executed  by  a  New 
England  mechanic,  and  a  part  by  one  of  his  own  hands,  which 
indicated  that  the  latter  was  much  the  better  workman. 

I  was  gratified  by  this,  for  I  had  been  so  often  told,  in  Vir- 
ginia, by  gentlemen,  anxious  to  convince  me  that  the  negro  was 
incapable  of  being  educated  or  improved  to  a  condition  in  which 
it  would  be  safe  to  trust  him  with  himself — that  no  negro- 
mechanic  could  ever  be  taught,  or  induced  to  work  carefully  or 
nicely — that  I  had  begun  to  believe  it  might  be  so. 

We  were  attended  through  the  mill-house  by  a  respectable- 
looking,  orderly,  and  gentlemanly-mannered  mulatto,  who  was 
called,  by  his  master,  "  the  watchman."  His  duties,  however, 
as  they  were  described  to  me,  were  those  of  a  steward,  or 
intendant.  He  carried,  by  a  strap  at  his  waist,  a  very  large 
number  of  keys,  and  had  charge  of  all  the  stores  of  provisions, 
tools,  and  materials  of  the  plantations,  as  well  as  of  all  their 
produce,  before  it  was  shipped  to  market.  He  weighed  and 
measured  out  all  the  rations  of  the  slaves  and  the  cattle;  super- 
intended the  mechanics,  and  himself  made  and  repaired,  as  was 
necessary,  all  the  machinery,  including  the  steam-engine. 


SOUTH    CAROLINA    AND     GEORGIA.  427 

In  all  these  departments,  his  authority  was  superior  to  that 
of  the  overseer.  The  overseer  received  his  private  allowance  of 
family  provisions  from  him,  as  did  also  the  head-servant  at  the 
mansion,  who  was  his  brother.  His  responsibility  was  much 
greater  than  that  of  the  overseer ;  and  Mr.  X.  said,  he  would 
trust  him  with  much  more  than  he  would  any  overseer  he  had 
ever  known. 

Anxious  to  learn  how  this  trustworthiness  and  intelligence, 
so  unusual  in  a  slave,  had  been  developed  or  ascertained,  I 
inquired  of  his  history,  which  was,  briefly,  as  follows. 

Being  the  son  of  a  favorite  house-servant,  he  had  been,  as  a 
child,  associated  with  the  white  family,  and  received  by  chance 
something  of  the  early  education  of  the  white  children.  When 
old  enough,  he  had  been  employed,  for  some  years,  as  a  waiter ; 
but,  at  his  own  request,  was  eventually  allowed  to  learn  the 
blacksmith's  trade,  in  the  plantation-shop.  Showing  ingenuity 
and  talent,  he  was  afterwards  employed  to  make  and  repair  the 
plantation  cotton-gins.  Finally,  his  owner  took  him  to  a  steam- 
engine  builder,  and  paid  $500  to  have  him  instructed  as  a 
machinist.  After  he  had  become  a  skillful  workman,  he  obtained 
employment,  as  an  engineer ;  and  for  some  years  continued  in 
this  occupation,  and  was  allowed  to  spend  his  wages  for  himself. 
Finding,  however,  that  he  was  acquiring  dissipated  habits,  and 
wasting  all  his  earnings,  Mr.  X.  eventually  brought  him,  much 
against  his  inclinations,  back  to  the  plantations.  Being  allowed 
peculiar  privileges,  and  given  duties  wholly  flattering  to  his  self- 
respect,  he  soon  became  contented ;  and,  of  course,  was  able  to 
be  extremely  valuable  to  his  owner. 

I  have  seen  another  slave-engineer.  The  gentleman  who 
employed  him  told  me  that  he  was  a  man  of  talent,  and  of  great 


428  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

worth  of  character.  He  had  desired  to  make  him  free,  but  his 
owner,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Brokers,  and  of  Dr. 
's  Church,  in  New  York,  believed  that  Providence  de- 
signed the  negro  race  for  slavery,  and  refused  to  sell  him  for 
that  purpose.  He  thought  it  better  that  he  (his  owner)  should 
continue  to  receive  two  hundred  dollars  a  year  for  his  services, 
while  he  continued  able  to  work,  and  then  he  should  feel 
responsible  that  he  did  not  starve,  or  come  upon  the  public  for 
a  support,  in  his  old  age.  The  man  himself,  having  light  and 
agreeable '  duties,  well  provided  for,  furnished  with  plenty  of 
spending  money  in  gratuities  by  his  employer,  patronized  and 
flattered  by  the  white  people,  honored  and  looked  up  to  by  those 
of  his  own  color,  was  rather  indifferent  in  the  matter ;  or  even, 
perhaps,  preferred  to  remain  a  slave,  to  being  transported  for 
life,  to  Africa. 

The  watchman  was  a  fine-looking  fellow :  as  we  were  return- 
ing from  church,  on  Sunday,  he  had  passed  us,  well-dressed  and 
well-mounted,  and  as  he  raised  his  hat,  to  salute  us,  there  was 
nothing  in  his  manner  or  appearance,  except  his  color,  to  dis- 
tinguish him  from  a  gentleman  of  good-breeding  and  fortune4 

When  Ave  were  leaving  the  house,  to  go  to  church,  on  Sunday, 
after  all  the  white  family  had  entered  their  carriages,  or  mounted 
their  horses,  the  head  house-servant  also  mounted  a  horbe — as 
he  did  so,  slipping  a  coin  into  the  hands  of  the  boy  who  had 
been  holding  him.  Afterwards,  we  passed  a  family  of  negroes, 
in  a  light  wagon — the  oldest  among  them  driving  the  horse.  On 
my  inquiring  if  the  slaves  were  allowed  to  take  horses  to  drive 
to  church,  I  was  informed  that,  in  each  of  these  three  cases,  the 
horses  belonged  to  the  negroes  who  were  driving  or  riding  them. 
The  old  man  was  infirm,  and  Mr.  X.  had  given  him  a  horse,  to 


S  ,UTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  429 

enable  him  to  move  about.  He  was  probably  employed  to 
look  after  the  cattle  at  pasture,  or  at  something  in  which  it  was 
necessary,  for  his  usefulness,  that  he  should  have  a  horse  :  I  say 
this,  because  I  afterwards  found,  in  similar  cases  on  other  planta- 
tions, that  it  was  so. 

But  the  watchman  and  the  house-servant  had  bought  their 
horses  with  money.  The  watchman  was  believed  to  own  three 
horses  ;  and,  to  account  for  his  wealth,  Mr.  X.'s  son  told  me  that 
his  father  considered  him  a  very  valuable  servant,  and  frequently 
encouraged  him  in  his  good  behavior,  with  handsome  gratuities. 
He  receives,  probably,  considerably  higher  wages,  in  fact  (in  the 
form  of  presents),  than  the  white  overseer.  He  knew  his  father 
gave  him  two  hundred  dollars  at  once,  a  short  time  ago.  The 
watchman  has  a  private  house,  and,  no  doubt,  lives  in  consider- 
able luxury. 

Will  it  be  said,  "  therefore,  Slavery  is  neither  necessarily 
degrading  nor  inhumane  ?"  On  the  other  hand,  so  far  as  it  is 
not,  there  is  no  apology  for  it.  It  may  be  that  this  fine  fellow, 
if  he  had  been  born  a  freeman,  would  be  no  better  employed 
than-  he  is  here ;  but,  in  that  case,  where  is  the  advantage  f 
Certainly  not  in  the  economy  of  the  arrangement.  And  if  he 
ras  self-dependent,  and  if,  especially,  he  had  to  provide  for 
the  present  and  future  of  those  he  loved,  and  was  able  to  do 
so,  would  he  not  necessarily  live  a  happier,  stronger,  better,  and 
more  respectable  man  1 

But,  to  arrive  at  this  conclusion,  we  have  had  to  suppose  such 
a  state  of  society  for  the  free  laborer  as  to  make  it  a  matter  of 
certainty  that  by  the  development  of  industry,  talent,  and  provi- 
dence, he  is  able  to  provide  for  himself  and  for  those  whose 
happiness  is  linked  with  his  own. 


130  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

As  a  general  rule,  this  is  the  case  in  all  free-labor  countries. 
Nowhere,  I  suspect,  are  the  exceptions  to  it  so  frequent  as  are 
the  exceptions  to  humane  and  generous  treatment  of  slaves  by 
their  masters.  Nevertheless,  it  is  the  first  duty  of  those  who 
think  Slavery  Avrong  to  remove  to  the  utmost  all  such  excuse 
for  it  as  is  to  be  found  in  the  occasional  hardships  and  frequent 
debasement  and  ignorance  of  the  laboring  class  in  free  com- 
munities. 

After  passing  through  tool-rooms,  corn-rooms,  mule-stables, 
store-rooms,  and  a  large  garden,  in  which  vegetables  to  be  dis- 
tributed among  the  negroes,  as  well  as  for  the  family,  are  grown, 
we  walked  to  the  rice-land.  It  is  divided  by  embankments  into 
fields  of  about  twenty  acres  each,  but  varying  somewhat  in  size, 
according  to  the  course  of  the  river.  The  arrangements  are 
such  that  each  field  may  be  flooded  independently  of  the  rest, 
and  they  are  subdivided  by  open  ditches  into  rectangular  plats 
of  a  quarter  acre  each.  We  first  proceeded  to  where  twenty  or 
thirty  women  and  girls  were  engaged  in  raking  together,  in 
heaps  and  winrows,  the  stubble  and  rubbish  left  on  the  field  after 
the  last  crop,  and  burning  it.  The  main  object  of  this  operation 
is  to  kill  all  the  seeds  of  weeds,  or  of  rice,  on  the  ground.  Or- 
dinarily it  is  done  by  tasks — a  certain  number  of  the  small 
divisions  of  the  field  being  given  to  each  hand  to  burn  in  a  day  ; 
but  owing  to  a  more  than  usual  amount  of  rain  having  fallen 
lately,  and  some  other  causes,  making  the  work  harder  in  some 
places  than  others,  the  women  were  now  working  by  the  day, 
under  the  direction  of  a  "  driver,"  a  negro  man,  who  walked 
about  among  them,  taking  care  that  they  left  nothing  unburned. 
Mr.  X.  inspected  the  ground  tbey  had  gone  over,  to  see  whether 
the  driver  had  done  his  duty.     It   bad  been  sufficiently  well 


SOUTH    CAROLINA    AND    GEORGIA.  431 

burned,  but,  not  more  tban  quarter  as  much  ground  had  been 
gone  over,  he  said,  as  was  usually  burned  in  task-work, — and  he 
thought  they  had  been  very  lazy,  and  reprimanded  them  for  it. 
The  driver  made  some  little  apology,  but  the  women  offered  no 
reply,  keeping  steadily,  and  it  seemed  sullenly,  on  at  their  work. 
In  the  next  field,  twenty  men,  or  boys,  for  none  of  them  look- 
ed as  if  they  were  full-grown,  were  plowing,  each  with  a  single 
mule,  and  a  light,  New- York-made  plow.  The  soil  was  very 
friable,  the  plowing  easy,  and  the  mules  proceeded  at  a  smart 
pace  ;  the  furrows  were  straight,  regular,  and  well  turned.  Their 
task  was  nominally  an  acre  and  a  quarter  a  day ;  somewhat  less 
actually,  as  the  measure  includes  the  space  occupied  by  the 
ditches,  which  are  two  to  three  feet  wide,  running  around  each 
quarter  of  an  acre.  The  plowing  gang  was  superintended  by  a 
driver  who  was  provided  with  a  watch  ;  and  while  we  were  looking 
at  them  he  called  out  that  it  was  twelve  o'clock.  The  mules 
were  immediately  taken  from  the  plows,  and  the  plow-boys  mount- 
ing them,  leapt  the  ditches,  and  cantered  off  to  the  stables,  to 
feed  them.  One  or  two  were  ordered  to  take  their  plows  to  the 
blacksmith,  for  repairs. 

FOOD. 

The  plowmen  got  their  dinner  at  this  time:  those  not 
using  horses  do  not  usually  dine  till  they  have  finished  their 
tasks  ;  but  this,  I  believe,  is  optional  with  them.  They  com- 
mence work  at  sunrise,  and  at  about  eight  o'clock  have  breakfast 
brought  to  them '  in  the  field,  each  hand  having  left  a  bucket 
with  the  cook  for  that  purpose.  All  who  are  working  in 
connection  leave  their  work  together,  and  gather  in  a  social 
company  about  a  fire,  where  they  generally  spend  about  half  an 


432  OUR      SLAVE      STATES. 

hour,  at  breakfast  time.  The  provisions  furnished  them  consist 
mainly  of  meal,  rice  and  vegetables,  with  salt  and  molasses,  and 
occasionally  bacon,  fish,  and  coffee.  The  allowance  is  a  peck  of 
meal,  or  an  equivalent  quantity  of  rice  per  week,  to  each  work- 
ing hand,  old  or  young,  besides  small  stores.  Mr.  X.  says  that 
he  has  lately  given  a  less  amount  of  meat  than  is  now  usual  on 
plantations,  having  observed  that  the  general  health  of  the 
negroes  is  not  as  good  as  formerly,  when  no  meat  at  all  was 
customarily  given  them.  The  general  impression  among  plant- 
ers is,  that  the  negroes  work  much  better  for  being  supplied  with 
three  or  four  pounds  of  bacon  a  week. 

Leaving  the  rice-land,  we  went  next  to  some  of  the  upland 
fields,  where  we  found  several  other  gangs  of  negroes  at  work ; 
one  entirely  of  men  engaged  in  ditching ;  another  of  women,  and 
another  of  boys  and  girls,  "listing"  an  old  corn-field  with  hoes. 
All  of  them  were  working  by  tasks,  and  were  overlooked  by 
negro  drivers.  They  all  labored  with  greater  rapidity  and 
cheerfulness  than  any  slaves  I  have  before  seen  ;  and  the  women 
struck  their  hoes  as  if  they  were  strong,  and  well  able  to  engage 
in  muscular  labor.  The  expression  of  their  faces  was  generally 
repulsive,  and  their  tout  ensemble  anything  but  agreeable  to  the 
eye.  The  dress  of  most  of  them  was  uncouth  and  cumbrous, 
dirty  and  ragged ;  reefed  up,  as  I  have  once  before  described,  at 
the  hips,  so  as  to  show  their  heavy  legs,  wrapped  round  with  a 
piece  of  old  blanket,  in  lieu  of  leggings  or  stockings.  Most  of 
them  worked  with  bare  arms,  but  wore  strong  shoes  on  their 
feet,  and  handkerchiefs  on  their  heads ;  some  of  them  were 
smoking,  and  each  gang  had  a  fire  burning  on  the  ground,  near 
where  they  were  at  work,  to  light  their  pipes  and  warm  their 
breakfast  by.     Mr.  X.  said  this  was  always  their  custom,  even 


SOUTH     CAROLINA    AND     GEORGIA.  433 

in  summer.  To  each  gang  a  boy  or  girl  was  also  attached, 
whose  business  it  was  to  bring  water  for  them  to  drink,  and  to 
go  for  anything  required  by  the  driver.  The  drivers  would 
frequently  call  back  a  hand  to  go  over  again  some  piece  of  his 
or  her  task  that  had  not  been  worked  to  his  satisfaction,  and 
were  constantly  calling  to  one  or  another,  with  a  harsh  and 
peremptory  voice,  to  strike  harder  or  hoe  deeper,  and  otherwise 
taking  care  that  the  work  was  well  done.  Mr.  X.  asked  if  Little 
Sam  ("  Tom's  Sue's  Sam")  worked  yet  with  the  "  three-quarter  " 
hands,  and  learning  that  he  did,  ordered  him  to  be  put  with  the 
full  hands,  observing  that  though  rather  short,  he  was  strong  and 
stout,  and,  being  twenty  years  old,  well  able  to  do  a  man's 
work. 

The  field-hands  are  all  divided  into  four  classes,  accord- 
ing to  their  physical  capacities.  The  children  beginning  as 
"quarter-hands,"  advancing  to  "half-hands,"  and  then  to 
"  three-quarter  hands ;"  and,  finally,  when  mature,  and  able- 
bodied,  healthy  and  strong,  to  "full  hands."  As  they  de- 
cline in  strength,  from  age,  sickness,  or  other  cause,  they 
retrograde  in  the  scale,  and  proportionately  less  labor  is  re- 
quired of  them.  Many,  of  naturally  weak  frame,  never  are 
put  among  the  full  hands.  Finally,  the  aged  are  left  out  at 
the  annual  classification,  and  no  more  regular  field-work  is 
required  of  them,  although  they  are  generally  provided  with 
some  light,  sedentary  occupation.  I  saw  one  old  woman 
picking  "  tailings"  of  rice  out  of  a  heap  of  chaff,  an  occupa- 
tion at  which  she  was  literally  not  earning  her  salt.  Mr.  X. 
told  me  she  was  a  native  African,  having  been  brought  when 
a  girl  from  the  Guinea  coast.  She  spoke  almost  unintelli- 
gibly ;  but  after  some  other  conversation,  in  which  I  had  not 
19 


434  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

been  able  to  understand  a  word  she  said,  he  jokingly  pro- 
posed to  send  her  back  to  Africa.  She  expressed  her  pre- 
ference to  remain  where  she  was,  very  emphatically.  "Why?" 
She  did  not  answer  readily,  but  being  pressed,  threw  up  her 
palsied  hands,  and  said  furiously,  "  I  lubs  'on  mas'r,  oh,  I 
lubs  'ou.     I  don't  want  go  'way  from  'ou." 

The  field  hands,  are  nearly  always  worked  in  gangs,  the 
strength  of  a  gang  varying  according  to  the  work  that  en- 
gages  it ;  usually  it  numbers  twenty  or  more,  and  is  directed 
by  a  driver.  As  on  most  large  plantations,  whether  of  rice 
or  cotton,  in  Eastern  Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  nearly 
all  ordinary  and  regular  work  is  performed  by  tasks :  that 
is  to  say,  each  hand  has  his  labor  for  the  day  marked  out 
before  him,  and  can  take  his  own  time  to  do  it  in.  For 
instance,  in  making  drains  in  light,  clean  meadow  land,  each 
man  or  woman  of  the  full  hands  is  required  to  dig  one  thousand 
cubic  feet ;  in  swamp-land  that  is  being  prepared  for  rice 
culture,  where  there  are  not  many  stumps,  the  task  for  a 
ditcher  is  five  hundred  feet ;  while  in  a  very  strong  cypress 
swamp,  only  two  hundred  feet  is  required ;  in  hoeing  rice,  a 
certain  number   of  rows,   equal    to    one-half  or  two-thirds    of 

Ian  acre,  according  to  the  condition  of  the  land ;  in  sowing 
rice  (strewing  in  drills),  two  acres  ;  in  reaping  rice  (if  it 
v  stands  well),  three-quarters  of  an  acre  ;  or,  sometimes  a  gang 
will  be  required  to  reap,  tie  in  sheaves,  and  carry  to  the 
stack-yard  the  produce  of  a  certain  area,  commonly  equal  to 
one  fourth  the  number  of  acres  that  there  are  hands  working 
together.  Hoeing  cotton,  corn,  or  potatoes ;  one  half  to  one 
acre.  Threshing ;  five  to  six  hundred  sheaves.  In  plowing 
rice-land  (light,  clean,  mellow  soil)  with  a  yoke  of  oxen,  one 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  435 

acre  a  day,  including  the  ground  lost  in  and  near  the  drains — 
the  oxen  being  changed  at  noon.     A  cooper,  also,  for  instance, 
is  required  to  make  barrels   at  the  rate  of  eighteen  a   week. 
Drawing   staves;    500    a   day.     Hoop   poles;    120.     Squaring 
timber;    100  ft.      Laying   worm-fence;    50   panels    per   hand. 
Post  and  rail  do.,  posts   set  2^  to  3  ft.  deep,  9  ft.  apart,  nine 
or   ten   panels   per   hand.     In    getting   fuel   from   the    woods, 
(pine,  to  be  cut  and  split,)   one   cord  is  the  task  for  a  day.     A 
In   "mauling   rails,"   the   taskman    selecting    the   trees    (pine)     1 
that  he  judges  will  split  easiest,  one  hundred  a  day,  ends  not     / 
sharpened. 

These  are  the  tasks  for  first  class  able-bodied  men,  they 
are  lessened  by  one  quarter  for  three  quarter  hands,  and  pro- 
portionately for  the  lighter  classes.  In  allotting  the  tasks, 
the  drivers  are  expected  to  put  the  weaker  hands,  where  (if 
there  is  any  choice  in  the  appearance  of  the  ground,  as  where 
certain  rows  in  hoeing  corn  would  be  less  weedy  than  others,) 
they  will  be  favored. 

These  tasks  certainly  would  not  be  considered  excessively 
hard,  by  a  Northern  laborer ;  and,  in  point  of  fact,  the  more 
industrious  and  active  hands  finish  them  often  by  two  o'clock. 
I  saw  one  or  two  leaving  the  field  soon  after  one  o'clock, 
several  about  two ;  and  between  three  and  four,  I  met  a  dozen 
women  and  several  men  coming  home  to  their  cabins,  having 
finished  their  day's  work. 

Under  this  "  Organization  of  Labor,"  most  of  the  slaves  work 
rapidly  and  well.  In  nearly  all  ordinary  work,  custom  has  set- 
tled the  extent  of  the  task,  and  it  is  difficult  to  increase  it.  The 
driver  who  marks  it  out,  has  to  remain  on  the  ground  until 
it  is  finished,  and  has  no  interest  in  over-measuring  it;  and 


436  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

if  it  should  be  systematically  increased  very  much,  there  is 
danger  of  a  general  stampede  to  the  "  swamp" — a  clanger  the 
slave  can  always  hold  before  his  master's  cupidity.  In  fact, 
it  is  looked  upon  in  this  region  as  a  proscriptive  right  of  the 
negroes  to  have  this  incitement  to  diligence  offered  them ; 
and  the  man  who  denied  it,  or  who  attempted  to  lessen  it, 
would,  it  is  said,  suffer  in  his  reputation,  as  well  as  experience 
much  annoyance  from  the  obstinate  "  rascality"  of  his  negroes. 
Notwithstanding  this,  I  have  heard  a  man  assert,  boastingly, 
that  he  made  his  negroes  habitually  perform  double  the  cus- 
tomary tasks.  Thus  we  get  a  glimpse  again  of  the  black 
side.  If  he  is  allowed  the  power  to  do  this,  what  may  not  fs 
man  do  ? 

SLAVE    DRIVEES. 

It  is  the  driver's  duty  to  make  the  tasked  hands  do  their 
work  well.  If,  in  their  haste  to  finish  it,  they  neglect  to  do 
it  properly,  he  "  sets  them  back,"  so  that  carelessness  will 
hinder  more  than  it  will  hasten  the  completion  of  their  tasks. 

In  the  selection  of  drivers,  regard  seems  to  be  had  to  size 
and  strength — at  least,  nearly  all  the  drivers  I  have  seen 
are  tall  and  strong  men — but  a  great  deal  of  judgment,  re- 
quiring greater  capacity  of  mind  than  the  ordinary  slave  is 
often  supposed  to  be  possessed  of,  is  certainly  needed  in  them. 
A  good  driver  is  very  valuable  and  usually  holds  office  for 
life.  His  authority  is  not  limited  to  the  direction  of  labor 
in  the  field,  but  extends  to  the  general  deportment  of  the 
negroes.  He  is  made  to  do  the  duties  of  policeman,  and 
even  of  police  magistrate.  It  is  his  duty,  for  instance,  on 
Mr.  X.'s  estate,  to  keep  order  in  the  settlement ;  and,  if  two 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  437 

persons,  men  or  women,  are  fighting,  it  is  his  duty  to  imme- 
diately separate  them,  and  then  to  "  whip  them  both." 

Before  any  field  of  work  is  entered  upon  by  a  gang,  the 
driver  who  is  to  superintend  them  has  to  measure  and  stake 
off  the  tasks.  To  do  this  at  all  accurately,  in  irregular- 
shaped  fields,  must  require  considerable  powers  of  calculation. 
A  driver,  with  a  boy  to  set  the  stakes,  I  was  told,  would 
accurately  lay  out  forty  acres  a  day,  in  half-acre  tasks.  The 
only  instrument  used  is  a  five-foot  measuring  rod.  When 
the  gang  comes  to  the  field,  he  points  out  to  each  person  his 
or  her  duty  for  the  day,  and  then  walks  about  among  them, 
looking  out  that  each  proceeds  properly.  If,  after  a  hard 
day's  labor,  he  sees  that  the  gang  has  been  overtasked,  owing 
to  a  miscalculation  of  the  difficulty  of  the  work,  he  may  ex- 
cuse the  completion  of  the  tasks ;  but  he  is  not  allowed  to 
extend  them.  In  the  case  of  uncompleted  tasks,  the  body 
of  the  gang  begin  new  tasks  the  next  day,  and  only  a  suf- 
ficient number  are  detailed  from  it  to  complete,  during  the 
day,  the  unfinished  tasks  of  the  day  before.  The  relation 
of  the  driver  to  the  working  hands  seems  to  be  similar  to 
that  of  the  boatswain  to  the  seamen  in  the  navy,  or  of  the 
sergeant  to  the  privates  in  the  army. 

Having  generally  had  long  experience  on  the  plantation, 
the  advice  of  the  drivers  is  commonly  taken  in  nearly  all  the 
administration,  and  frequently  they  are,  de  facto,  the  mana- 
gers. Orders  on  important  points  of  the  plantation  economy, 
I  have  heard  given  by  the  proprietor  directly  to  them,  with- 
out the  overseer's  being  consulted  or  informed  of  them;  and 
it  is  often  left  with  them  to  decide  when  and  how  long  to 
flow  the   rice-grounds — the   proprietor  and   overseer   deferring 


438  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

to  their  more  experienced  judgment.  Where  the  drivers  are  dis- 
creet, experienced  and  trusty,  the  overseer  is  frequently  employed 
merely  as  a  matter  of  form,  to  comply  with  the  laws  requir- 
ing the  superintendence  or  presence  of  a  white  man  among 
every  body  of  slaves ;  and  his  duty  is  rather  to  inspect  and 
report,  than  to  govern.  Mr.  X.  considers  his  overseer  an 
uncommonly  efficient  and  faithful  one,  but  he  would  not  em- 
ploy him,  even  during  the  summer,  when  he  is  absent  for 
several  months,  if  the  law  did  not  require  it.  He  has  some- 
times left  his  plantation  in  care  of  one  of  the  drivers  for  a 
considerable  length  of  time,  after  having  discharged  an  over- 
seer ;  and  he  thinks  it  has  then  been  quite  as  well  conducted 
as  ever.  His  overseer  consults  the  drivers  on  all  important 
points,  and  is  governed  by  their  advice. 

PUNISHMENT. 

Mr.  X.  said,  that  though  overseers  sometimes  punished  the 
negroes  severely,  and  otherwise  ill-treated  them,  it  is  their 
more  common  fault  to  indulge  them  foolishly  in  their  dispo- 
sition to  idleness,  or  in  other  ways  to  curry  favor  with  them, 
so  they  may  not  inform  the  proprietor  of  their  own  mis- 
conduct or  neglect.  He  has  his  overseer  bound  to  certain 
rules,  by  written  contract;  and  it  is  stipulated  that  he  can 
discharge  him  at  any  moment,  without  remuneration  for 
his  loss  of  time  and  inconvenience,  if  he  should  at  any 
time  be  dissatisfied  with  him.  One  of  the  rules  is,  that 
he  shall  never  punish  a  negro  with  his  own  hands,  and 
that  corporeal  punishment,  when  necessary,  shall  be  inflicted 
by  the  drivers.  The  advantage  of  this  is,  that  it  secures  time 
for   deliberation,  and  prevents  punishment  being  made  in  sud- 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA.     439 

den  passion.  His  drivers  are  not  allowed  to  carry  their 
whips  with  them  in  the  field;  so  that  if  the  overseer  wishes 
a  hand  punished,  it  is  necessary  to  call  a  driver ;  and  the 
driver  has  then  to  go  to  his  cabin,  which  is,  perhaps,  a  mile 
or  two  distant,  to  get  his  whip,  before  it  can  be  applied. 

I  asked  how  often  the  necessity  of  punishment  occurred? 

"  Sometimes,  perhaps,  not  once  for  two  or  three  weeks ; 
then  it  will  seem  as  if  the  devil  had  got  into  them  all  and 
there  is  a  good  deal  of  it." 

SLAVES    TAKING    CARE  OP    THEMSELVES. 

As  the  negroes  finish  the  labor,  required  of  them  by  Mr.  X., 
at  three  or  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  they  can  employ  the 
remainder  of  the  day  in  laboring  for  themselves,  if  they  choose. 
Each  family  has  a  half-acre  of  land  allotted  to  it,  for  a  garden ; 
besides  which,  there  is  a  large  vegetable  garden,  cultivated  by.  a 
gardener  for  the  plantation,  from  which  they  are  supplied,  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent.  They  are  at  liberty  to  sell  whatever  they 
choose  from  the  products  of  their  own  garden,  and  to  make  what 
they  can  by  keeping  swine  and  fowls.  Mr.  X.'s  family  have  no 
other  supply  of  poultry  and  eggs  than  what  is  obtained  by 
purchase  from  his  own  negroes ;  they  frequently,  also,  purchase 
game  from  them.  The  only  restriction  upon  their  traffic  is  a 
"liquor  law."  They  are  not  allowed  to  buy  or  sell  ardent 
spirits.  This  prohibition,  like  liquor  laws  elsewhere,  unfortu- 
nately, cannot  be  enforced;  and,  of  late  years,  grog  shops,  at 
which  stolen  goods  are  bought  from  the  slaves,  and  poisonous 
liquors — chiefly  the  worst  whisky,  much  watered  and  made 
stupefying  by  an  infusion  of  tobacco — are  clandestinely  sold  to 
them,  have  become  an  established  evil,  and  the  planters  find 


440  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

themselves  almost  powerless  to  cope  with  it.  They  have, 
here,  lately  organized  an  association  for  this  purpose,  and  have 
brought  several  offenders  to  trial ;  but,  as  it  is  a  penitentiary 
offense,  the  culprit  spares  no  pains  or  expense  to  avoid  convic- 
tion— and  it  is  almost  impossible,  in  a  community  of  which  so 
large  a  proportion  is  poor  and  degraded,  to  have  a  jury  sufficient- 
ly honest  and  intelligent  to  permit  the  law  to  be  executed. 

A  remarkable  illustration  of  this  evil  has  lately  occurred.  A 
planter,  discovering  that  a  considerable  quantity  of  cotton  had 
been  stolen  from  him,  informed  the  patrol  of  the  neighboring 
planters  of  it.  A  strategem  was  made  use  of,  to  detect  the 
thief,  and,  what  was  of  much  more  importance — there  being  no 
question  but  that  this  was  a  slave — to  discover  for  whom  the 
thief  worked.  A  lot  of  cotton  was  prepared,  by  mixing  hair 
with  it,  and  put  in  a  tempting  place.  A  negro  was  seen  to  take 
it,  and  was  followed  by  scouts,  to  a  grog-shop,  several  miles 
distant,  where  he  sold  it — its  real  value  being  nearly  ten  dollars — 
for  ten  cents,  taking  his  pay  in  liquor.  The  man  was  arrested, 
and,  the  theft  being  made  to  appear,  by  the  hair,  before  a  justice, 
obtained  bail  in  $2,000,  to  answer  at  the  higher  Court.  Some 
of  the  best  legal  counsel  of  the  State  has  been  engaged,  to 
obtain,  if  possible,  his  conviction. 

This  difficulty  in  the  management  of  slaves  is  a  great  and  very 
rapidly  increasing  one.  Everywhere  that  I  have  been,  I  have 
found  the  planters  provoked  and  angry  about  it.  A  swarm  of 
Jews,  within  the  last  ten  years,  has  settled  in  nearly  every 
Southern  town,  many  of  them  men  of  no  character,  opening 
cheap  clothing  and  trinket  shops ;  ruining,  or  driving  out  of 
business,  many  of  the  old  retailers,  and  engaging  in  an  unlawful 
trade  with  the  simple  negroes,  which  is  found  very  profitable. 


SOUTH    CAROLINA    AND    GEORGIA.  441 

From  the  Charleston  Standard,  Nov.  23d,  1854. 
"  This  abominable  practice  of  trading  with,  slaves,  is  not  only  taking 
our  produce  from  us,  but  injuring  our  slave  property.  It  is  true  the 
owner  of  slaves  may  lock,  watch,  and  whip,  as  much  as  he  pleases — the 
negroes  will  steal  and  trade,  as  long  as  white  persons  hold  out  to  them 
temptations  to  steal  and  bring  to  them.  Three-fourths  of  the  persons 
who  are  guilty,  you  can  get  no  fine  from  ;  and,  if  they  have  some  prop- 
erty, all  they  have  to  do  is  to  confess  a  judgment  to  a  friend,  go  to  jail, 
and  swear  out.  It  is  no  uncommon  thing  for  a  man  to  be  convicted 
of  offenses  against  the  State,  and  against  the  persons  and  property  of 
individuals,  and  pay  the  fines,  costs,  and  damages,  by  swearing  out  of 
jail,  and  then  go  and  commit  similar  offenses.  The  State,  or  the  party 
injured,  has  the  cost  of  all  these  prosecutions  and  suits  to  pay,  besides 
the  trouble  of  attending  Court :  the  guilty  is  convicted,  the  injured 
prosecutor  punished." 

The  law  which  prevents  the  reception  of  the  evidence  of  a 
negro  in  courts,  here  strikes  back,  with  a  most  annoying  force, 
upon  the  dominant  power  itself.  In  the  mischief  thus  arising, 
we  see  a  striking  illustration  of  the  clanger  which  stands  before 
the  South,  whenever  its  prosperity  shall  invite  extensive  immigra- 
tion, and  lead  what  would  otherwise  be  a  healthy  competition  to 
flow  through  its  channels  of  industry. 

This  injury  to  slave  property,  from  grog-shops,  furnishes  the 
grand  argument  for  the  Maine  Law  at  the  South. 

From  an  Address  to  the  people  of  Georgia,  by  a  Committee  of  the  State 
Temperance  Society,  prior  to  the  election  of  1855. 
"  We  propose  to  turn  the  2,200  foreign  grog-shop  keepers,  in  Georgia, 
out  of  office,  and  ask  them  to  help  us.  They  (the  Know-Nothings)  re- 
ply, '  "We  have  no  time  for  that  now — we  are  trying  to  turn  foreigners 
out  of  office  ;'  and  when  we  call  upon  the  Democratic  party  for  aid, 
they  excuse  themselves,  upon  the  ground  that  they  have  work  enough 
to  do  in  keeping  these  foreigners  in  office." 

From  the  Fenfield  (Ga.)  Temperance  Banner,  Sept.  29th,  1855. 

"OUR    SLAVE    POPULATION. 

"  We  take  the  following  from  the  Savannah  Journal  and  Courier, 
19* 


442  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

and  would  ask  every  candid  reader  if  the  evils  referred  to  ought  not  to 
be  corrected.     How  shall  it  be  done  ? 

" '  By  reference  to  the  recent  homicide  of  a  negro,  in  another  column, 
some  facts  will  be  seen  suggestive  of  a  state  of  things,  in  this  part  of  our 
population,  which  should  not  exist,  and  which  cannot  endure  without 
danger,  both  to  them  and  to  us.  The  collision,  which  terminated  thus 
fatally,  occurred  at  an  hour  past  midnight — at  a  time  when  none  but 
the  evil-disposed  are  stirring,  unless  driven  by  necessity  ;  and  yet,  at  that 
hour,  those  negroes  and  others,  as  many  as  chose,  were  passing  about  the 
country,  with  ample  opportunity  to  commit  any  act  which  might  happen 
to  enter  their  heads.  In  fact,  they  did  engage,  in  the  public  highway, 
in  a  broil  terminating  in  homicide.  It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  that 
their  evil  passions  might  have  taken  a  very  different  direction,  with  as 
little  danger  of  meeting  control  or  obstacle. 

" '  But  it  is  shown,  too,  that  to  the  impunity  thus  given  them  by  the 
darkness  of  midnight,  was  added  the  incitement  to  crime  drawn  from  the 
abuse  of  liquor.  They  had  just  left  one  of  those  resorts  where  the  negro 
is  supplied  with  the  most  villainously-poisonous  compounds,  fit  only  to 
excite  him  to  deeds  of  blood  and  violence.  The  part  that  this  had  in 
the  slaughter  of  Saturday  night,  we  are  enabled  only  to  imagine  ;  but 
experience  would  teach  us  that  its  share  was  by  no  means  small.  Indeed, 
we  have  the  declaration  of  the  slayer,  that  the  blow,  by  which  he  was 
exasperated  so  as  to  return  it  by  the  fatal  stab,  was  inflicted  by  a  bottle 
of  brandy !  In  this  fact,  we  fear,  is  a  clue  to  the  whole  history  of  the 
transaction.' 

"  Here,  evidently,  are  considerations  deserving  the  grave  notice  of, 
not  only  those  who  own  negroes,  but  of  all  others  who  live  in  a  society 
where  they  are  held." 


LAWS  OF  TRADE  ON  THE  PLANTATION. 

Mr.  X.  remarks  that  his  arrangements  allow  his  servants  no 
excuse  for  dealing  with  these  fellows.  He  has  a  rule  to  pur- 
chase everything  they  desire  to  sell,  and  to  give  them  a  high 
price  for  it,  himself.  Eggs  constitute  a-  circulating  medium  on 
the  plantation.     Their  par  value  is  considered  to  be  twelve  for  a 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  443 

dime,  at  which  they  may  always  be  exchanged  for  cash,  or  left 
on  deposit,  without  interest,  at  his  kitchen. 

Whatever  he  takes  of  them  that  he  cannot  use  in  his  own 
family,  or  has  not  occasion  to  give  to  others  of  his  servants,  is 
sent  to  town,  to  be  resold.  The  negroes  do  not  commonly  take 
money  for  the  articles  he  has  of  them,  but  the  value  of  them  is 
put  to  their  credit,  and  a  regular  account  kept  with  them.  He 
has  a  store,  usually  well  supplied  with  articles  that  they  most 
want,  which  are  purchased  in  large  quantities,  and  sold  to  them 
at  wholesale  prices ;  thus  giving  them  a  great  advantage  in  deal- 
ing Avith  him  rather  than  with  the  grog-shops.  His  slaves  are 
sometimes  his  creditors  to  large  amounts ;  at  the  present  time 
he  says  he  owes  them  about  five  hundred  dollars.  A  woman  has 
charge  of  the  store,  and  when  there  is  anything  called  for  that 
she  cannot  supply,  it  is  usually  ordered  by  the  next  convey- 
ance, of  his  factors  in  town. 

SUGGESTIVE. 

The  ascertained  practicability  of  thus  dealing  with  slaves, 
together  with  the  obvious  advantages  of  the  method  of  working 
them  by  tasks,  which  I  have  described,  seem  to  me  to  indicate 
that  it  is  not  so  impracticable  as  is  generally  supposed,  if  only 
it  was  desired  by  those  having  the  power,  to  rapidly  extinguish 
Slavery,  and  while  doing  so,  to  educate  the  negro  for  taking  care 
of  himself,  in  freedom.  Let,  for  instance,  any  slave  be  provided 
with  all  things  he  will  demand,  as  far  as  practicable,  and  charge 
him  for  them  at  certain  prices — honest,  market  prices  for  his 
necessities,  higher  prices  for  harmless  luxuries,  and  excessive,  but 
not  absolutely  prohibitory,  prices  for  everything  likely  to  do  him 
harm.     Credit  him,  at  a  fixed  price,  for  every  day's  work  he 


444  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

does,  and  for  all  above  a  certain  easily  accomplished  task  in  a 
day,  at  an  increased  price,  so  that  his  reward  -will  be  in  an  in- 
creasing ratio  to  his  perseverance.  Let  the  prices  of  provisions 
be  so  proportioned  to  the  price  of  task-work,  that  it  will  be 
about  as  easy  as  it  is  now  for  him  to  obtain  a  bare  subsistence. 
When  he  has  no  food  and  shelter  due  him,  let  him  be  confined 
in  solitude,  or  otherwise  punished,  until  he  asks  for  opportunity 
to  earn  exemption  from  punishment,  by  labor. 

When  he  desires  to  marry,  and  can  persuade  any  woman  to 
marry  him,  let  the  two  be  dealt  with  as  in  partnership.  Thus, 
a  young  man  or  young  woman  will  be  attractive,  somewhat  in 
proportion  to  his  or  her  reputation  for  industry  and  providence. 
Thus,  industry  and  providence  will  become  fashionable.  Oblige 
them  to  purchase  food  for  their  children,  and  let  them  have  the 
benefit  of  their  children's  labor,  and  they  will  be  careful  to  teach 
their  children  to  avoid  waste,  and  to  honor  labor.  Let  those 
who  have  not  gained  credit  while  hale  and  young,  sufficient  to 
support  themselves  in  comfort  when  prevented  by  age  or  in- 
firmity from  further  labor,  be  supported  by  a  tax  upon  all  the 
negroes  of  the  plantation,  or  of  a  community.  Improvidence, 
and  pretense  of  inability  to  labor,  will  then  be  disgraceful. 

When  any  man  has  a  balance  to  his  credit  equal  to  his  value 
as  a  slave,  let  that  constitute  him  a  free  man.  It  will  be 
optional  with  him  and  his  employer,  whether  he  shall  continue 
longer  in  the  relation  of  servant.  If  desirable  for  both  that  he 
should,  it  is  probable  that  he  will ;  for  unless  he  is  honest,  pru- 
dent, industrious  and  discreet,  he  will  not  have  acquired  the 
means  of  purchasing  his  freedom. 

If  he  is  so,  he  will  remain  where  he  is,  unless  he  is  more 
wanted  elsewhere ;  a  fact  that  will  be  established  by  his  being 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  445 

called  away  by  higher  wages,  or  the  prospect  of  greater  ease  and 
comfort  elsewhere.  If  he  is  so  drawn  off,  it  is  better  for  all  par- 
ties concerned  that  he  should  go.  Better  for  his  old  master ;  for 
he  would  not  refuse  him  sufficient  wages  to  induce  him  to  stay, 
unless  he  could  get  the  work,  he  wanted  him  to  do,  done  cheaper 
than  he  would  justly  do  it.  Poor  wages  would  certainly,  in  the 
long  run,  buy  but  poor  work ;  fair  wages,  fair  work. 

Of  course  there  Avill  be  exceptional  cases,  but  they  will  always 
operate  as  cautions  for  the  future,  not  only  to  the  parties  suffer- 
ing, but  to  all  who  observe  them.  And  be  sure  they  will  not 
be  suffered,  among  ignorant  people,  to  be  lost.  This  is  the  bene- 
ficent function  of  gossip,  with  which  wise  and  broad-working 
minds  have  nothing  to  do,  such  not  being  benefited  by  the  itera- 
tion of  the  lessons  of  life. 

Married  persons,  of  course,  can  only  become  free  together. 
In  the  appraisement  of  their  value,  let  that  of  their  young 
children  be  included,  so  that  they  cannot  be  parted  from  them ; 
but  with  regard  to  children  old  enough  to  earn  something  more 
than  their  living,  let  it  be  optional  what  they  do  for  them. 

Such  a  system  would  simply  combine  the  commendable 
elements  of  the  emancipation  law  of  Cuba,*  and  those  of  the 
reformatory  punishment  system,  now  in  successful  operation  in 
some  of  the  British  penal  colonies,  with  a  few  practical  modifica- 
tions.    Further  modifications  would,  doubtless,  be  needed,  which 


*  In  Cuba  every  slave  has  the  privilege  of  emancipating  himself,  by  paying 
a  price  which  does  not  depend  upon  the  selfish  exactions  of  the  masters ;  but  it 
is  either  a  fixed  price,  or  else  is  fixed,  in  each  case,  by  disinterested  appraisers. 
The  consequence  is,  that  emancipations  are  constantly  going  on,  and  the  free 
people  of  color  are  becoming  enlightened,  cultivated,  and  wealthy.  In  no  part 
of  the  United  States  do  they  occupy  the  high  social  position  which  they  enjoy 
!        in  Cuba. 


446  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

any  man  who  lias  had  much  practical  experience  in  dealing  with 
slaves  might  readily  suggest.  Much  might  he  learned  from  the 
experience  of  the  system  pursued  in  the  penal  colonies,  some 
account  of  which  may  he  seen  in  the  report  of  the  Pri- 
soners' Aid  Society  of  New  York,  for  1854,  or  in  a  previous 
little  work  of  my  own.  I  have  here  only  desired  to  suggest, 
apropos  to  my  friend's  experience,  the  practicability  of  providing 
the  negroes  an  education  in  essential  social  morality,  while  they 
are  drawing  towards  personal  freedom;  a  desideratum  with 
those  who  do  not  consider  Slavery  a  purely  and  eternally 
desirable  thing  for  both  slave  and  slave-master,  which  the 
present  system,  I  think,  is  calculated,  as  far  as  possible,  in  every 
direction  to  oppose.  My  reasons  for  thus  thinking,  I  may 
hereafter  give,  in  some  detail. 

Education  in  theology  and  letters  could  be  easily  combined 
with  such  a  plan  as  I  have  hinted  at ;  or,  if  a  State  should  wish 
to  encourage  the  improvement  of  its  negro  constituent — as,  in  the 
progress  of  enlightenment  and  Christianity,  may  be  hoped  to 
eventually  occur — a  simple  provision  of  the  law,  making  a  cer- 
tain standard  of  proficiency  the  condition  of  political  freedom, 
would  probably  create  a  natural  demand  for  education,  which 
commerce,  under  its  inexorable  higher-laws,  would  be  obliged  to 
satisfy. 

SPECIAL    NATURAL    DEPRAVITY    OF    NEGROES. 

I  do  not  think,  after  all  I  have  heard  to  favor  it,  that  there  is 
any  good  reason  to  consider  the  negro,  naturally  and  essentially, 
the  moral  inferior  of  the  white ;  or,  that  if  he  is  so,  it  is  in  those 
elements  of  character  which  should  forever  prevent  us  from 
trusting  him  with  equal  social  munities  with  ourselves. 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEOKGTA.  447 

So  far  as  I  have  observed,  slaves  show  themselves  worthy  of 
trust  most,  where  their  masters  are  most  considerate  and  liberal 
towards  them.  Far  more  so,  for  instance,  on  the  small  farms  of 
North  Carolina  than  on  the  plantations  of  Virginia  and  South 
Carolina.  Mr.  X.'s  slaves  are  permitted  to  purchase  fire-arms 
and  ammunition,  and  to  keep  them  in  their  cabins ;  and  his  wife 
and  daughters  reside  with  him,  among  them,  the  doors  of  the 
house  never  locked,  or  windows  closed,  perfectly  defenseless,  and 
miles  distant  from  any  other  white  family. 

Another  evidence  that  negroes,  even  in  slavery,  when  trusted, 
may  prove  wonderfully  reliable,  I  will  subjoin,  in  a  letter  written 
by  Mr.  Alexander  Smets,  of  Savannah,  to  a  friend  in  New  York, 
in  1853.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say,  that  the  "servants" 
spoken  of  were  negroes,  and  the  "suspicious  characters,"  provi- 
dentially removed,  were  whites.  The  letter  was  not  written  for 
publication : 

"  The  epidemic  which  spread  destruction  and  desolation  through  our 
city,  and  many  other  places  iu  most  of  the  Southern  States,  was,  with 
the  exception  of  that  of  1820,  the  most  deadly  that  was  ever  known  here. 
Its  appearance  being  sudden,  the  inhabitants  were  seized  with  a  panic, 
which  caused  an  immediate  sauve  qui  pent  seldom  witnessed  before.  I 
left,  or  rather  fled,  for  the  sake  of  my  daughters,  to  Sparta,  Hancock 
county.     They  were  dreadfully  frightened. 

"  Of  a  population  of  fifteen  thousand,  six  thousand,  who  could  not 
get  away,  remained,  nearly  all  of  whom  were  more  or  less  seized  with 
the  prevailing  disease.    The  negroes,  with  very  few  exceptions,  escaped. 

"Amidst  the  desolation  and  gloom  pervading  the  deserted  streets, 
there  was  a  feature  that  showed  our  slaves  in  a  favorable  light.  There 
were  entire  blocks  of  houses,  which  were  either  entirely  deserted,  the 
owners  in  many  instances  having,  iu  their  flight,  forgotten  to  lock  them 
up,  or  left  in  charge  of  the  servants.  A  finer  opportunity  for  plunder 
could  not  be  desired  by  thieves  ;  and  yet  the  city  was  remarkable,  dur- 
ing the  time,  for  order  and  quietness.  There  were  scarcely  any  rob- 
beries committed,  and  as  regards  fires,  so  common  in  the  winter,  none ! 


448  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

Every  householder,  whose  premises  had  escaped  the  fury  of  the  late 
terrific  storm,  found  them  id  the  same  condition  he  had  left  them.  Had 
not  the  yellow  fever  scared  away  or  killed  those  suspicious  characters, 
whose  existence  is  a  problem,  and  who  prowl  about  every  city,  I  fear 
that  our  city  might  have  been  laid  waste.  Of  the  whole  board  of 
directors  of  five  banks,  three  or  four  remained,  and  these  at  one  time 
were  sick.  •  Several  of  the  clerks  were  left,  each  in  the  possession  of  a 
single  one.  For  several  weeks  it  was  difficult  to  get  anything  to  eat  ; 
the  bakers  were  either  sick  or  dead.  The  markets  closed,  no  country- 
man dared  venture  himself  into  the  city  with  the  usual  supplies  for  the 
table,  and  the  packets  had  discontinued  their  trips.  I  shall  stop,  other- 
wise I  could  fill  a  volume  with  the  occurrences  and  incidents  of  the 
dismal  period  of  the  epidemic." 

SLAVE    "  MARRIAGES"    AND    FUNERALS. 

While  watching  the  negroes  in  the  field,  Mr.  X.  addressed  a 
girl,  who  was  vigorously  plying  a  hoe  near  us. 

"Is  that  Lucy? Ah,  Lucy,  what's  this  I  hear  about  you?" 

The  girl  simpered ;  but  did  not  answer  nor  discontinue  her 
work. 

"  What  is  this  I  hear  about  you  and  Sam,  eh  ?" 

The  girl  grinned ;  and,  still  hoeing  away  with  all  her  might, 
whispered  "  Yes,  sir." 

"  Sam  came  to  see  me  this  morning." 

"  If  master  pleases." 

"  Very  well ;  you  may  come  up  to  the  house  Saturday  night, 
and  your  mistress  will  have  something  for  you." 

Mr.  X.  does  not  absolutely  refuse  to  allow  his  negroes  to 
"  marry  off  the  place,"  as  most  large  slave-owners  do,  but  he 
discourages  intercourse,  as  much  as  possible,  between  his  negroes 
and  those  of  other  plantations ;  and  they  are  usually  satisfied 
to  choose  from  among  themselves. 

When  a  man  and  woman  wish  to  live  with  each  other,  they 


SOUTH    CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  449 

are  required  to  aslc  leave  of  their  master ;  and,  unless  there  are 
some  very  obvious  objections,  this  is  always  granted :  a  cabin  is 
allotted  to  them,  and  presents  are  made  of  dresses  and  house- 
keeping articles.  A  marriage  ceremony,  in  the  same  form  as 
that  used  by  free  people,  is  conducted  by  the  negro  preacher, 
and  they  are  encouraged  to  make  the  occasion  memorable  and 
gratifying  to  all,  by  general  festivity.  The  master  and  mistress, 
•when  on  the  plantation,  usually  honor  the  wedding  by  their 
attendance ;  and,  if  they  are  favorite  servants,  it  is  held  in  the 
house,  and  the  ceremony  performed  by  a  white  minister. 

A  beautiful,  dense,  evergreen  grove  is  used  as  the  burial- 
ground  of  the  negroes.  The  funerals  are  always  at  night,  and 
are  described  as  being  very  quaint  and  picturesque — all  the 
negroes  of  the  neighborhood  marching  in  procession  from  the 
cabin  of  the  deceased  person  to  the  grave,  carrying  light-wood 
torches,  and  singing  hymns,  in  their  sacl,  wailing,  chanting  man- 
ner.    At  the  head  of  each  recent  grave  stands  a  wooden  post. 

SLAVE    CHAPELS    AND    SLAVE    WORSHIP. 

On  most  of  the  large  rice  plantations  which  I  have  seen  in 
this  vicinity,  there  is  a  small  chapel,  which  the  negroes  call  their 
prayer-house.  The  owner  of  one  of  these  told  me  that,  having 
furnished  the  prayer-house  with  seats  having  a  back-rail,  his 
negroes  petitioned  him  to  remove  it,  because  it  did  not  leave 
them  room  enough  to  pray.  It  was  explained  to  me  that  it  is 
their  custom,  in  social  worship,  to  work  themselves  up  to  a  great 
pitch  of  excitement,  in  which  they  yell  and  cry  aloud,  and, 
finally,  shriek  and  leap  up,  clapping  their  hands  and  dancing, 
as  it  is  done  at  heathen  festivals.  The  back-rail  they  found 
to  seriously  impede  this  exercise. 


450  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

Mr.  X.  told  me  that  lie  had  endeavored,  with  but  littl* 
success,  to  prevent  this  shouting  and  jumping  of  the  negroes 
at  their  meetings  on  his  plantation,  from  a  conviction  that 
there  was  not  the  slightest  element  of  religious  sentiment  in  it. 
He  considered  it  to  be  engaged  in  more  as  an  exciting  amuse- 
ment than  from  any  really  religious  impulse.  In  the  town 
churches,  except,  perhaps,  those  managed  and  conducted  almost 
exclusively  by  negroes,  the  slaves  are  said  to  commonly  engage 
in  religious  exercises  in  a  sober  and  decorous  manner;  yet,  a 
member  of  a  Presbyterian  church  in  a  Southern  city  told  me, 
that  he  had  seen  the  negroes,  in  his  own  house  of  worship, 
during  "  a  season  of  revival,"  leap  from  their  seats,  throw  their 
arms  wildly  in  the  air,  shout  vehemently  and  unintelligibly,  cry, 
groan,  rend  their  clothes,  and  fall  into  cataleptic  trances. 

SLAVE   CLERGY. 

On  almost  every  large  plantation,  and  in  every  neighborhood 
of  small  ones,  there  is  one  man  who  has  come  to  be  considered 
the  head  or  pastor  of  the  local  church.  The  office  among  the 
negroes,  as  among  all  other  people,  confers  a  certain  importance 
and  power.  A  part  of  the  reverence  attaching  to  the  duties  is 
given  to  the  person ;  vanity  and  self-confidence  are  cultivated,  and 
a  higher  ambition  aroused  than  can  usually  enter  the  mind  of  a 
slave.  The  self-respect  of  the  preacher  is  also  often  increased 
by  the  consideration  in  which  he  is  held  by  his  master,  as  well 
as  his  fellows  ;  thus,  the  preachers  generally  have  an  air  of 
superiority  to  other  negroes ;  they  acquire  a  remarkable  memory 
of  words,  phrases,  and  forms ;  a  curious  sort  of  poetic  talent  is 
developed,  and  a  habit  is  obtained  of  rhapsodizing  and  exciting 
furious  emotions,  to  a  great  degree  spurious  and  temporary,  in 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  451 

themselves  and  others,  through  the  imagination.  I  was  intro 
duced,  the  other  day,  to  a  preacher,  who  was  represented  to  be 
quite  distinguished  among  them.  I  took  his  hand,  respectfully, 
and  said  I  was  happy  to  meet  him.  He  seemed  to  take  this  for 
a  joke,  and  laughed  heartily.  He  was  a  "  driver,"  and  my  friend 
said: 

"  He  drives  the  negroes  at  the  cotton  all  the  week,  and  Sun- 
days he  drives  them  at  the  Gospel — don't  you,  Ned?" 

He  commenced  to  reply  in  some  scriptural  phrase,  soberly ; 
but,  before  he  could  say  three  words,  began  to  laugh  again,  and 
reeled  off  like  a  drunken  man — entirely  overcome  with  merri- 
ment.    He  recovered  himself  in  a  moment,  and  returned  to  us. 
"  They  say  he  preaches  very  powerfully,  too." 
"Yes,  Massa!  'kordin'  to  der  grace — yah!  yah!" 
And  he  staggered  off  again,  with  the  peculiar  hearty  negr< 
guffaw.     My  friend's  tone  was,  I  suppose,   slightly  humorous, 
but  I  was  grave,  and  really  meant  to  treat  him  respectfully, 
wishing  to  draw  him  into    conversation;    but  he  had  got  the 
impression   that   it   was   intended   to   make    fun  of  him,   and, 
generously  assuming  a  merry  humor,  I  found  it  impossible  to 
get  a  serious  reply. 

A   RELIGIOUS    SERVICE    AMONG    THE    CRACKERS. 

A  majority  of  the  public  houses  of  worship  at  the  South 
are  small,  rude  structures  of  logs,  or  rough  boards,  built  by 
the  united  labor  or  contributions  of  the  people  of  a  large 
neighborhood  or  district  of  country,  and  are  used  as  places 
of  assembly  for  all  public  purposes.  Few  of  them  have 
any  regular  clergymen,  but  preachers  of  different  denomina- 
tions go  from  one  to   another,  sometimes  in  a  defined  rotation, 


452  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

or  "circuit,"  so  that  they  may  be  expected  at  each  of  their  sta- 
tions at  regular,  intervals.  A  late  report  of  the  Southern  Aid 
Society  states  that  hardly  one-fifth  of  the  preachers  are  regularly 
educated  for  their  business,  and  that  "  you  would  starve  a  host 
of  them  if  you  debarred  them  from  seeking  additional  support 
for  their  families  by  worldly  occupation."  In  one  presbytery  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church,  which  is,  perhaps,  the  richest,  and 
includes  the  most  educated  body  of  people  of  all  the  Southern 
Churches,  there  are  twenty-one  ministers  whose  wages  are  not 
over  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  each.  The  proportion  of 
ministers,  of  all  sorts,  to  people,  is  estimated  at  one  to  thirteen 
hundred.  (In  the  Free  States  it  is  estimated  at  one  to  nine 
hundred.)  The  report  of  this  Society  also  states,  that  "  within 
the  limits  of  the  United  States  religious  destitution  lies  compara- 
tively at  the  South  and  Southwest;  and  that  from  the  first 
settlement  of  the  country  the  North  has  preserved  a  decided 
religious  superiority  over  the  South,  especially  in  three  import- 
ant particulars :  in  ample  supply  of  Christian  institutions ; 
extensive  supply  of  Christian  truth ;  and  thorough  Christian 
regimen,  both  in  the  Church  and  in  the  community."  It  is 
added  that,  "  while  the  Southwestern  States  have  always  needed 
a  stronger  arm  of  the  Christian  ministry  to  raise  them  up  toward 
a  Christian  equality  with  their  Northern  brethren,  their  supply 
in  this  respect  has  always  been  decidedly  inferior."  The  reason 
of  this  is  the  same  with  that  which  explains  the  general  igno- 
rance of  the  people  of  the  South :  The  effect  of  Slavery  in  pre- 
venting social  association  of  the  whites,  and  in  encouraging 
vagabond  and  improvident  habits  of  life  among  the  poor. 

The  two  largest  denominations  of  Christians  at  the  South  are 
the  Methodists  and  Baptists — the  last  having  a  numerical  superi- 


SOUTH  CAROLINA  AND  GEORGIA.     453 

ority.  There  are  some  subdivisions  of  each,  and  of  the  Baptists 
especially,  the  nature  of  which  I  do  not  understand.  Two  grand 
divisions  of  the  Baptists  are  known  as  the  Hard  Shells  and  the 
Soft  Shells.  There  is  an  intense  rivalry  and  jealousy  among 
these  various  sects  and  sub-sects,  and  the  controversy  between 
them  is  carried  on  with  a  bitterness  and  persistence  exceeding 
anything  which  I  have  known  at  the  North,  and  in  a  manner 
which  curiously  indicates  how  the  terms  Christianity,  piety,  etc., 
are  misapplied  to  partisanship,  and  conditions  of  the  imagination. 
A  general  want  of  deep  reverence  of  character  is  evidenced  in 
the  frequent  familiar  and  public  use  of  expressions  of  rare  rever- 
ence, and  in  high-colored  descriptions  of  personal  feelings  and 
sentiments,  which,  if  actual,  can  only  be  among  a  man's  dearest, 
most  interior,  secret,  stillest,  and  most  uncommunicable  expe- 
riences. Men  talk  in  public  places,  in  the  churches,  and  in  bar- 
rooms, in  the  stage-coach,  and  at  the  fireside,  of  their  personal  and 
peculiar  relationship  with  the  Deity,  and  of  the  mutations  of  their 
harmony  with  His  Spirit,  just  as  they  do  about  their  family  and 
business  matters.  Of  the  familiar  use  of  Scripture  expressions 
by  the  negroes,  I  have  already  spoken.  This  is  not  confined  to 
them,  but  is  general  among  all  the  lower  and  middle  classes. 
(When  I  speak  of  classes,  I  usually  refer,  as  in  this  case,  more 
especially  to  degree  in  education  and  information.)  The  follow- 
ing advertisement  of  a  "  reforming"  dram-seller  is  an  illustra- 
tion: 

'"FAITH  WITHOUT  WORKS  IS  DEAD,' 

IN  order  to  engage  in  a  more  '  honorable'  business,  I  offer  for  sale, 
cheap  for  cash,  my  stock  of 

LIQUORS,  BAR-FIXTURES,  BILLIARD  TABLE, 

etc.,  etc.  If  not  sold  privately,  by  the  20th  day  of  May,  I  will  sell  the 
same  at  public  auction.  '  Shew  me  thy  faith  without  thy  works,  and 
I  will  shew  thee  my  faith  by  my  works.'  E.  KEYSER." 


454  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

The  religious  service  which  I  am  ahout  to  describe,  was  held 
in  a  less  than  usually  rude  meeting-house,  the  boards  by  whicb 
it  was  inclosed  being  planed,  the  windows  glazed,  and  the  seats 
for  the  white  people  provided  with  backs.  It  stood  in  a  small 
clearing  of  the  woods,  and  there  was  no  habitation  within  two 
miles  of  it.  When  I  reached  it  with  my  friends,  the  services  had 
already  commenced.  Fastened  to  trees,  in  a  circle  about  the 
house,  there  were  many  saddled  horses  and  mules,  and  a  few 
attached  to  carts  or  wagons.  There  were  two  smouldering 
camp-fires,  around  which  sat  circles  of  negroes  and  white  boys, 
roasting  potatoes  in  the  ashes. 

In  the  house  were  some  fifty  white  people,  generally 
dressed  in  homespun,  and  of  the  class  called  "crackers," 
though  I  was  told  that  some  of  them  owned  a  good  many 
negroes,  and  were  by  no  means  so  poor  as  their  appear- 
ance indicated.  About  one-third  of  the  house,  at  the  end 
opposite  the  desk,  was  covered  by  a  gallery  or  cock-loft, 
under  and  in  which,  distinctly  separated  from  the  whites, 
was  a  dense  body  of  negroes ;  the  men  on  one  side,  the 
women  on  another.  The  whites  were  seated  promiscuously 
in  the  body  of  the  house.  The  negroes  present  outnum- 
bered the  whites,  but  the  exercises  at  this  time  seemed  to 
have  no  reference  to  them ;  there  were  many  more  waiting 
about  the  doors  outside,  and  they  were  expecting  to  enjoy 
a  meeting  to  themselves,  after  the  whites  had  left  the  house. 
They  were  generally  neatly  dressed,  more  so  than  the  ma- 
jority of  the  whites  present,  but  in  a  distinctly  plantation 
or  slave  style.  A  few  of  them  wore  somewhat  expensive 
articles,  evidently  of  their  own  selection  and  purchase,  but  I 
observed,  with  some  surprise,  that  not  one  of  the  women  had 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  455 

a  bonnet  upon  her  head,  all  wearing  handkerchiefs,  generally 
of  gay  patterns,  and  becomingly  arranged.  I  inquired  if  this 
was  entirely  a  matter  of  taste,  and  was  told  that  it,  no  doubt, 
was  generally  so,  though  the  masters  would  not  probably  allow 
them  to  wear  bonnets,  if  tbey  should  be  disposed  to,  and  should 
purchase  them  themselves,  as  it  would  be  thought  presum- 
ing. In  the  towns,  the  colored  women  often,  but  not  gene- 
rally, wear  bonnets. 

During  all  the  exercises,  people  of  both  classes  were  fre- 
quently going  out  and  coming  in;  the  women  had  brought 
their  babies  with  them,  and  these  made  much  disturbance. 
A  negro  girl  would  sometimes  come  forward  to  take  a  child 
out ;  perhaps  the  child  would  prefer  not  to  be  taken  out  and 
Avould  make  loud  and  angry  objections ;  it  would  then  be 
fed.  Several  were  allowed  to  crawl  about  the  floor,  carry- 
ing handfuls  of  corn-bread  and  roast  potatoes  about  with 
them ;  one  had  a  fancy  to  enter  the  pulpit ;  which  it  succeed- 
ed in  climbing  into  three  times,  and  was  as  often  taken  away, 
in  spite  of  loud  and  tearful  expostulations,  by  its  father. 
Dogs  were  not  excluded ;  and  outside,  the  doors  and  win- 
dows all  being  open,  there  was  much  neighing  and  braying, 
unused  as  were  the  mules  and  horses  to  see  so  many  of 
their  kind  assembled. 

The  preliminary  devotional  exercises — a  Scripture  reading, 
singing,  and  painfully  irreverential  and  meaningless  harangues 
nominally  addressed  to  the  Deity,  but  really  to  the  audience 
— being  concluded,  the  sermon  was  commenced  by  reading  a 
text,  with  which,  however,  it  had,  so  far  as  I  could  discover, 
no  further  association.  Without  often  being  violent  in  his 
manner,   the   speaker   nearly   all  the   time  cried  aloud  at   the 


456  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

utmost  stretch  of  his  voice,  as  if  calling  to  some  one  a  long 
distance  off;  as  his  discourse  was  extemporaneous,  however, 
he  sometimes  returned  with  curious  effect  to  his  natural  con- 
versational tone;  and  as  he  was  gifted  with  a  strong  imagi- 
nation, and  possessed  of  a  good  deal  of  dramatic  power,  he  kept, 
the  attention  of  the  people  very  well.  There  was  no  argu- 
ment upon  any  point  that  the  congregation  wTere  likely  to 
have  much  difference  of  opinion  upon,  nor  any  special  con- 
nection hetween  one  sentence  and  another ;  yet  there  was  a 
constant,  sly,  sectarian  skirmishing,  and  a  frequently  recur- 
ring cannonade  upon  French  infidelity  and  socialism,  and  several 
crushing  charges  upon  Fourier,  the  Pope  of  Rome,  Tom  Paine, 
Voltaire,  "  Eoosu,"  and  Jo  Smith.  The  audience  were  frequently 
reminded  that  the  preacher  did  not  want  their  attention,  for 
any  purpose  of  his  own;  hut  that  he  demanded  a  respectful 
hearing  as  "the  Ambassador  of  Christ."  He  had  the  habit  of 
frequently  repeating  a  phrase,  or  of  bringing  forward  the  same 
idea  in  a  slightly  different  form,  a  great  many  times.  The 
following  passage,  of  which  I  took  notes,  presents  an  example 
of  this,  followed  by  one  of  the  best  instances  of  his  dramatic 
talent  that  occurred.  He  was  leaning  far  over  the  desk,  with 
his  arm  stretched  forward,  gesticulating  violently,  yelling  at 
the  highest  key,  and  catching  breath  with  an  effort : 

"A — ah!  why  don't  you  come  to  Christ?  ah!  what's  the 
reason?  ah!  Is  it  because  he  was  of  lowly  birth?  ah!  Is 
that  it  ?  Is  it  because  he  was  born  in  a  manger  1  ah !  Is  it 
because  he  was  of  a  humble  origin  ?  ah !  Is  it  because  he 
was  lowly  born  ?  a-ha !  Is  it  because,  ah ! — is  it  because,  ah ! — 
because  he  was  called  a  Nazarene  ?  Is  it  because  he  was  born  in 
a  stable  1 — or  is  it  because — because  he  was  of  humble  origin  ? 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  457 

Or  is  it — is  it  because" — He  drew  back,  and  after  a  moment's 
silence  put  bis  band  to  bis  cbin,  and  began  walking  up  and 
down  tbe  platform  of  tbe  pulpit,  soliloquizing.  "  It  can't  be 
— it  can't  be — ?" — then  lifting  bis  eyes  and  gradually  turn- 
ing towards  the  audience,  while  he  continued  to  speak  in  a 
low,  thoughtful  tone:  "perhaps  you  don't  like  the  messenger 
— is  that  the  reason?  I'm  the  Ambassador  of  the  great  and 
glorious  King;  it's  bis  invitation,  'taint  mine.  You  musn't 
mind  me.  I  ain't  no  account.  Suppose  a  ragged,  insignifi- 
cant little  boy  should  come  running  in  here  and  tell  you, 
'  Mister,  your  bouse 's  a-fire !'  would  you  mind  the  ragged, 
insignificant  little  boy,  and  refuse  to  listen  to  him,  because 
he  didn't  look  respectable  1" 

At  tbe  end  of  the  sermon  he  stepped  down  from  the 
pulpit,  and,  crossing  the  bouse  towards  the  negroes,  said, 
quietly,  as  he  walked,  "I  take  great  interest  in  the  poor 
blacks ;  and  this  evening  I  am  going  to  hold  a  meeting  speci- 
ally for  you."  With  this,  he  turned  back,  and  without  reenter- 
ing the  pulpit,  but  strolling  up  and  down  before  it,  read  a 
hymn,  at  the  conclusion  of  which,  he  laid  his  book  down, 
and,  speaking  for  a  moment,  with  natural  emphasis,  said : 

"  I  don't  want  to  create  a  tumultuous  scene,  now ; — 
that  isn't  my  intention.  I  don't  want  to  make  an  excite- 
ment,— that  aint  what  I  want, — but  I  feel  that  there's  some 
here  that  I  may  never  see  again,  ah!  and,  as  I  may  never 
have  another  opportunity,  I  feel  it  my  duty  as  an  Ambassa- 
dor of  Jesus  Christ,  ah!  before  I  go "     By  this  time  he 

had  returned  to  the  high  key  and  whining  yell.  Exactly  what 
he  felt  it  his  duty  to  do,  I  did  not  understand ;  but  evi- 
dently to  employ  some  more  powerful  agency  of  awakening, 
90 


458  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

than  arguments  and  appeals  to  the  understanding ;  and,  be- 
fore I  could  conjecture,  in  the  least,  of  what  sort  this  was  to 
be,  while  he  was  yet  speaking  calmly,  deprecating  excitement, 
my  attention  was  attracted  to  several  men,  who  had  previously 
appeared  sleepy  and  indifferent,  but  who  now  suddenly  began 
to  sigh,  raise  their  heads,  and  shed  tears — some  standing  up, 
so  that  they  might  be  observed  in  doing  this  by  the  whole 
congregation — the  tears  running  down  their  noses  without 
any  interruption.  The  speaker,  presently,  was  crying  aloud, 
with  a  mournful,  distressed,  beseeching  shriek,  as  if  he  was 
himself  suffering  torture :  "  Oh,  any  of  you  fond  parents,  who 
know  that  any  of  your  dear,  sweet,  little  ones  may  be,  oh! 
at  any  moment  snatched  right  away  from  your  bosom,  and 
cast  into  hell  fire,  oh !  there  to  suffer  torment  forever  and 
ever,  and  ever  and  ever — Oh!  come  out  here  and  help  us 
pray  for  them!  Oh,  any  of  you  wives  that  has  got  an  uncon- 
verted husband,  that  Avon't  go  along  with  you  to  eternal  glory, 
but  is  set  upon  being  separated  from  you,  oh !  and  taking 
up  his  bed  in  hell — Oh!  I  call  upon  you,  if  you  love  him, 
now  to  come  out  here  and  jine  us  in  praying  for  him.  Oh, 
if  there's  a  husband  here,  whose  wife  is  still  in  the  bond  of 
iniquity,"  etc.,  through  a  long  category. 

It  was  immediately  evident  that  a  large  part  of  the  audiencs 
understood  his  wish  to  be  the  reverse  of  what  he  had  declared, 
and  considered  themselves  called  upon  to  assist  him  ;  and  it  was 
astonishing  to  see  with  what  readiness  the  faces  of  those  who, 
up  to  the  moment  he  gave  the  signal,  had  appeared  drowsy  and 
stupid,  were  made  to  express  distressing  excitement,  sighing, 
groaning,  and  weeping.  Eising  in  their  seats,  and  walking  up 
to  the  pulpit,  they  grasped  each  other's  hands  agonizingly,  and 


SOUTH     CAROLINA     AND     GEORGIA.  459 

remained,  some  kneeling,  others  standing,  with'  their  faces 
towards  the  remainder  of  the  assembly.  There  was  great  con- 
fusion and  tumult,  and  the  poor  children,  evidently  impressed  by 
the  terrified  tone  of  the  howling  preacher,  with  the  expectation 
of  some  immediately  impending  calamity,  shrieked,  and  ran 
hither  and  thither,  till  negro  girls  came  forward,  laughing  at  the 
imposition,  and  carried  them  out. 

At  length,  when  some  twenty  had  gathered  around  the 
preacher,  and  it  became  evident  that  no  more  could  be  drawn 
out,  he  stopped  a  moment  for  breath,  and  then  repeated  a  verso 
of  a  hymn,  which  being  sung,  he  again  commenced  to  cry  aloud, 
calling  now  upon  all  the  unconverted,  who  were  loilling  to  be 
saved,  to  kneel.  A  few  did  so,  and  another  verse  was  sung, 
followed  by  another  more  fervent  exhortation.  So  it  went  on  ; 
at  each  verse  his  entreaties,  warnings,  and  threats,  and  the 
responsive  groans,  sobs,  and  ejaculations  of  his  coterie  grew 
louder  and  stronger.  Those  who  refused  to  kneel,  were  ad- 
dressed as  standing  on  the  brink  of  the  infernal  pit,  into  which  a 
diabolical  divinity  was  momentarily  on  the  point  of  satisfying 
the  necessities  of  his  character  by  hurling  them  off. 

All  this  time  about  a  dozen  of  the  audience  remained  stand- 
ing, many  were  kneeling,  and  the  larger  part  had  taken  their 
seats — all  having  risen  at  the  commencement  of  the  singing. 
Those  who  continued  standing  were  mainly  wild-looking  young 
fellows,  who  glanced  with  smiles  at  one  another,  as  if  they 
needed  encouragement  to  brazen  it  out.  A  few  young  women 
were  evidently  fearfully  excited,  and  perceptibly  trembled,  but 
for  some  reason  dared  not  kneel,  or  compromise,  by  sitting. 
One  of  these,  a  good-looking  and  gayly-dressed  girl,  stood 
near,  and   directly  before  the   preacher,  her   lips  compressed, 


460  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

and  her  eyes  fixed  fiercely  and  defiantly  upon  him.  He  for 
some  time  concentrated  his  force  upon  her;  but  she  was  too 
strong  for  him,  he  could  not  bring  her  down.  At  length, 
shaking  his  finger  toward  her,  with  a  terrible  expression,  as  if 
he  had  the  power,  and  did  not  lack  the  inclination  to  damn  her 
for  her  resistance  to  his  will,  he  said:  "I  tell  you  this  is 
the  last  call/"  She  bit  her  lips,  and  turned  paler,  but  still 
stood  erect,  and  defiant  of  the  immense  magnetism  concen- 
trated upon  her,  and  he  gave  it  up  himself,  quite  exhausted 
with  the  effort. 

The  last  verse  of  the  hymn  was  sung.  A  comparatively  quiet 
and  sober  repetition  of  Scripture  phrases,  strung  together  hetero- 
geneously  and  without  meaning,  in  the  form  of  prayer,  followed, 
a  benediction  was  pronouced,  and  in  five  minutes  all  the  people 
were  out  of  the  door,  with  no  trace  of  the  previous  excitement 
left,  but  most  of  the  men  talking  eagerly  of  the  price  of  cotton, 
and  negroes,  and  otber  news. 

The  negroes  kept  their  place  during  all  of  the  tumult;  there 
may  have  been  a  sympathetic  groan  or  exclamation  uttered  by 
one  or  two  of  them,  but  generally  they  expressed  only  the  inter- 
est of  curiosity  in  the  proceedings,  such  as  Europeans  might  at 
a  performance  of  the  dancing  dervishes,  an  Indian  pow-wow,  or 
an  exhibition  of  "psychological"  or  "spiritual"  phenomena, 
making  it  very  evident  that  the  emotion  of  the  performers  was 
optionally  engaged  in,  as  an  appropriate  part  of  divine  service. 
There  was  generally  a  self-satisfied  smile  upon  their  faces ;  and 
I  have  no  doubt  they  felt  that  they  could  do  it  with  a  good  deal 
more  energy  and  abandon,  if  they  were  called  upon.  I  did  not 
wish  to  detain  my  companion  to  witness  how  they  succeeded, 
when  their  turn  came ;  and  I  can  only  judge  from  the  fact,  that 


SOUTH    CAROLINA    AND     GEORGIA.  461 

those  I  saw  the  next  morning  were  so  hoarse  that  they  could 
scarcely  speak,  that  the  religious  exercises  they  most  enjoy  are 
rather  hard  upon  the  lungs,  whatever  their  effect  may  be  upon 
the  soul. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

RICE    AND    ITS    CULTURE. 

Although  nineteen-twentieths  of  all  the  rice  raised  in  the 
United  States  is  grown  within  a  district  of  narrow  limits,  on  the 
sea-coast  of  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia,  the  crop  forms  a  not 
unimportant  item  among  the  total  productions  of  the  country.* 
The  crop  of  1849  was  supposed  to  be  more  than  two  hundred 
and  fifteen  million  pounds,  and  the  amount  exported  was  equal, 
in  value,  to  one-third  of  all  the  wheat  and  flour,  and  to  one-sixth 
of  all  the  vegetable  food,  of  every  kind,  sent  abroad.  The 
exportation  of  1851  was  exceeded  in  value,  according  to  the 
Patent  Office  Eeport,  only  by  that  of  cotton,  flour,  and  tobacco. 

Rice  is  raised  in  limited  quantity  in  all  of  the  Southern 
States,  and  probably  might  be  in  some  of  the  North.  Rice 
has  been  grown  on  the  Thames  in  England,  and  is  exten- 
sively cultivated  in  Westphalia,  Lombardy,  and  Hungary,  in 
a  climate  not  differing,  materially,  from  that  of  Southern  Ohio 
or  Pennsylvania.  Travelers  have  found  a  variety  of  rice  ex- 
tensively cultivated  among   the    Himalayan   mountains,   at   an 


The  number  of  Rice  Plantations  is  as  follows,  viz. : 

S.  Carolina — Plantations  raising  20,000  lbs.  and  over,  -        44G 

Georgia,                   "           "               »                 "  88 

N.Carolina,             "            "                "                 "  -          25 

Total, 559 


RICE     AND     ITS     CULTURE.  463 

elevation  but  little  below  the  line'  of  constant  snow.  It  is 
true  that  a  hot  climate  is  necessary  for  a  large  production ; 
but  these  facts  contradict  the  common  assertion,  that  rice  can 
only  be  grown  under  such  circumstances  of  climate  as  must 
be  fatal  to  any  but  negro  labor.* 

In  Louisiana  and  the  Mississippi  valley,  where  the  rice 
culture  is,  at  present,  very  limited,  there  are  millions  of 
acres  of  now  unproductive  wilderness,  admirably  adapted  to 
its  requirements,  and  here,  "  it  is  a  well  known  fact,"  says 
a  writer  in  De  Bow's  Review,  "  that  the  rice  plantations,  both  as 
regards  whites  and  blacks,  are  more  healthy  than  the  sugar  and 
cotton.'1''  The  only  restriction,  therefore,  upon  the  production 
of  rice  to  a  thousand  fold  greater  extent  than  at  present,  is 
the  cost  of  labor  in  the  Southern  States. 

From  the  New  Orleans  Delta,  FeVy  20,  1853. 

"  It  is  shown  in  a  petition  to  the  legislature  of  Louisiana,  asking  for 
a  grant  of  State  land  to  the  petitioners,  as  an  encouragement  to  them 
to  undertake  extensive  rice  culture,  in  the  State,  that  the  cultivation  of 
rice,  in  Louisiana,  is  not  attended  with  the  unusual  sickness  that  it  is  in 
the  Atlantic  States.  This  is  an  important  fact,  and  reference  is  made 
to  the  Parish  of  Plaquemines,  where  there  is  a  rice-growing  district,  of 
some  thirty  or  forty  miles,  on  each  side  of  the  river,  making  forty  thou- 
sand or  more  barrels  of  rough  rice,  yearly ;  and  where  the  health  of 
the  inhabitants,  both  white  and  black,  is  about  the  same  that  it  is 
in  other  parts  of  the  State,  where  no  rice  is  grown.  The  reason  assign- 
ed is,  the  Mississippi  water,  owing  to  its  peculiar  character,  is  not  near 
so  liable  to  stagnate  or  decompose,  and  produce  miasms,  as  the  fresh, 
clear  waters  of  the  Eastern  rivers.  It  has  been  the  impression  of  most 
of  the  residents  of  Plaquemines,  that  that  Parish  has  always  been,  except 
when  the  cholera  prevailed,  one  of  the  healthiest  in  the  State." 

*  The  rice  commonly  reported  to  grow  wild,  abundantly,  in  Wisconsin,  and 
lately  reproduced  from  seed  in  Connecticut,  is  not,  I  believe,  properly  called 
rice,  but  is  of  the  family  of  oats. 


464  ofcJE.     SLAVE     STATES. 

From  the  same,  May  28,  1854. 

"  Another  specimen  of  Creole  rice  may  now  be  seen  at  the  Reading 
Room  of  the  Exchange,  side  by  side  with  the  "  Gold  Seed"  we  noticed 
a  short  time  since.  It  came,  from  the  Parish  of  Plaquemines,  and  is  of 
the  sort  very  generally  cultivated  there.  J.  Blodget  Britton,  Esq.,  the 
founder  of  the  Louisiana  Eice  Mill  Company,  selected  it  as  a  fair  sam- 
ple of  what  is  now  produced  in  that  district.  He  informs  us  that  it 
resembles  the  white  husk  upland  variety  of  South  Carolina,  though  hav- 
ing, where  care  is  used  in  its  culture,  a  larger  kernel,  but  is  not  so 
highly  esteemed  in  commerce  as  the  "  Gold  Seed  ;  it  is,  however,  greatly 
preferred  by  the  Creoles,  on  account  of  its  flavor. 

Mr.  Britton  has  been  traveling  much  through  the  Atlantic  States, 
from  Georgia  to  Massachusetts,  in  quest  of  information  upon  the  subject 
of  rice  culture  and  milling,  and  recently  has  visited  the  principal  rice 
districts  of  this  State,  collecting  and  imparting  all  the  information  in 
his  power.  He  says  there  are  few,  very  few  persons  in  Louisiana  who 
are  at  all  aware  of  the  great  capability  of  our  batture  lands  for  the  pro- 
duction of  rice,  and  of  a  quality,  too,  he  thinks,  that  will  equal  any  in  the 
world.  All  that  is  wanted  is,  good  seed  and  proper  culture.  Some  of  the 
grain  he  has  found  is  even  larger  than  the  large  Ward  rice  of  the  George- 
town District,  S.  C,  and  some  equally  tough  and  hard,  indeed,  tougher 
and  harder,  he  thinks,  and  possessing  all  the  requisites  for  fine  milling. 
But  a  fact,  by  no  means  the  least  important,  he  has  ascertained.  He  is 
thoroughly  satisfied,  after  hundreds  of  inquiries,  that  the  cultivation  of 
rice  on  the  Mississippi  bottoms  does  not  cause  unusual  sickness,  as  is  the 
case  to  the  eastward.  This  he  attributes  to  the  purifying  qualities  of  the 
sediment  of  the  river  water.  Dr.  Wilkinson,  of  the  Parish  of  Plaque- 
mines, whom  we  regard  as  high  authority,  has  also  given  his  assurance  of 
this." 

Eice  continues  to  be  cultivated  extensively  on  the  coast  of 
Georgia  and  the  Carolinas,  notwithstanding  the  high  price  of 
labor  which  Slavery  and  the  demand  for  cotton  has  occa- 
sioned, only  because  there  are  unusual  facilities  there  for 
forming  plantations,  in  which,  while  the  soil  is  exceedingly 
rich  and  easily  tilled,  and  the  climate  favorable,  the  ground 
may   be    covered   at   will   with   water,   until   nearly   all    other 


RICI3     AND     ITS     CULTURE.  465 

plants  are  killed,  so  as  to  save  much  of  the  labor  which 
■would  otherwise  be  necessary  in  the  cultivation  of  the  crop; 
and  may  as  readily  be  drained,  when  the  requirements  of  the 
rice  itself  make  it  desirable. 

Some  of  the  economical  advantages  thus  obtained,  might  cer- 
tainly be  made  available,  under  other  circumstances,  for  other 
crops.  Luxuriant  crops  of  grain  and  leguminous  plants  are 
sometimes  grown  upon  the  rice  fields,  and  I  have  little  doubt 
that  there  are  many  swamps,  bordering  upon  our  Northern  rivers, 
which  might  be  converted  into  fields  of  irrigation,  with  great 
profit.  On  this  account,  I  shall  describe  the  rice  plantation 
somewhat  elaborately. 

THE    ATLANTIC    RICE    DISTRICT. 

A  large  part  of  all  the  country  next  the  coast,  fifty  miles 
or  more  in  width,  in  North  and  South  Carolina  and  Georgia, 
is  occupied  by  flat  cypress  swamps  and  reedy  marshes.  That 
which  is  not  so  is  sandy,  sterile,  and  overgrown  with  pines, 
and  only  of  any  value  for  agriculture  where,  at  depressions 
of  the  surface,  vegetable  mould  has  been  collected  by  the 
flow  of  rain  water.  The  nearer  we  approach  the  sea,  the 
more  does  water  predominate,  till  at  length  land  appears 
only  in  islands  or  capes ;  this  is  the  so-called  Sea  Island 
region.  Below  all,  however,  there  stretches  along  the  whole 
coast  a  low  and  narrow  sand  bar — a  kind  of  defensive  out- 
work of  the  land,  seldom  inhabited  except  by  lost  Indians 
and  runaway  negroes,  who  subsist  by  hunting  and  fishing. 
There  are,  upon  it,  several  government  relief  stations  and 
light-houses,  far  less  frequent,  alas !  than  skeleton  hulks  of  old 

ships,  which,  half   buried — like  victims  of  war — in  the    sand, 
20* 


466  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

give  sad  evidence  of  the  fury  of  the  sea,  and  of  the  firm- 
ness "with  which  its  onsets  are  received. 

At  distant  intervals  there  are  shallow  breaches,  through 
which  the  quiet  tide  twice  a  day  steals  in,  swelling  the  neutral 
lagoons,  and  damming  the  outlet  of  the  fresh  water  streams,  till 
their  current  is  destroyed  or  turned  back,  and  their  flood  dis- 
persed far  and  wide  over  the  debatable  land  of  the  cypress  swamps. 

Then  when  heavy  rains  in  the  interior  have  swollen  the  rivers, 
their  eddying  currents  deposit,  all  along  the  edges  of  the 
sandy  islands  and  capes  of  the  swamp,  the  rich  freight  they  have 
brought  from  the  calcareous  or  granitic  mountains  in  which 
they  rise,  with  the  organic  waste  of  the  great  forests  through 
which  they  flow.  With  all  is  mingled  the  silicious  wash  of 
the  nearest  shore  and  the  rich  silt  of  the  salt  lagoons,  aroused 
from  their  bottoms  in  extraordinary  assaults  of  the  ocean. 

This  is  the  soil  of  the  rice  plantations,  which  are  always 
formed  in  such  parts  of  the  tidal  swamps,  adjoining  the  main- 
land or  the  sandy  islands,  as  are  left  nearly  dry  at  the  ebb 
of  the  water.  The  surface  must  be  level,  or  with  only 
slight  inclinations  towards  the  natural  drains  in  which  the 
retiring  tide  withdraws;  and  it  must  be  at  such  a  distance 
from  the  sea,  that  there  is  no  taste  of  salt  in  the  water  by 
which  it  is  flooded,  at  the  rise  of  tide. 

MAKING    A    RICE   FIELD. 

In  such  a  situation,  the  rice  fields  are  first  constructed  as 
follows  :  Their  outline  being  determined  upon,  the  trees  are  cut 
upon  it  for  a  space  of  fifty  feet  in  width :  a  ditch  is  then  dug  at 
the  ebb  of  the  water,  the  earth  thrown  out  from  which  soon 
suffices  to  prevent  the  return  of  ordinary  tides,  and  the  laborers 


RICE     AND     ITS     CULTURE.  467 

are  thus  permitted  to  work  uninterruptedly.  An  embankment  is 
then  formed,  upon  the  site  of  the  first  made  ditch,  sufficiently 
thick  and  high  to  resist  the  heaviest  floods  which  can  be  antici- 
pated. It  is  usually  five  feet  in  hight,  and  fifteen  in  breadth  at 
the  base,  and  all  stumps  and  roots  are  removed  from  the  earth 
of  which  it  is  formed,  as,  in  digging  the  first  ditch,  they  have 
been  from  its  base.  The  earth  for  it  is  obtained  by  digging  a 
great  ditch  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  inside  of  it ;  and  if  more  is 
afterwards  needed,  it  is  brought  from  a  distance,  rather  than 
lessen  its  security  by  loosening  the  ground  near  its  base. 

While  this  embanking  has  been  going  on,  the  trees  may  have 
been  felled  over  all  the  ground  within,  and,  with  the  underbrush, 
drawn  into  piles  or  rows.  At  a  dry  time  in  the  spring,  fire  is 
set  to  the  windward  side  of  these,  and  they  are  more  or  less 
successfully  consumed.  Often  the  logs  remain,  as  do  always  the 
stumps,  encumbering  the  rice  field  for  many  years.  Usually, 
too,  the  larger  trees  are  only  girdled,  and  their  charred  or 
rotting  trunks  stand  for  years,  rueful  corpses  of  the  old 
forests. 

The  cleared  land  is  next  divided  into  fields  of  convenient  size, 
by  embankments  similar  to,  but  not  as  large  as,  the  main  river 
embankment,  the  object  of  them  being  only  to  keep  the  water 
that  is  to  be  let  into  one  field  out  of  the  next,  which  may  not  be 
prepared  for  it ;  commonly  they  are  seven  or  eight  feet  wide  at 
base  and  three  feet  high,  with  ditches  of  proportionate  size  ad- 
joining them ;  a  margin  of  eight  or  ten  feet  being  left  between 
the  ditches  and  the  embankments.  Each  field  must  be  provided 
with  a  separate  trunk  and  gate,  to  let  in  or  exclude  the  water  of 
the  river ;  and  if  it  is  a  back  field,  a  canal,  embanked  on  either 
side,  is  sometimes  necessary  to  be  made  for  this  purpose.     Such 


468  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

a  canal  is  generally  made  wide  enough  to  admit  of  the  pas- 
sage of  a  scow  for  the  transportation  of  the  crop. 

These  operations  being  concluded,  the  cultivation  of  the  land 
is  commenced  ;  but,  owing  to  the  withdrawal  of  shade,  the  decay 
of  roots  and  recent  vegetable  deposit,  and  the  drainage  of  the 
water  with  which  the  earth  has  hitherto  been  saturated,  there 
continues  for  several  years  to  be  a  gradual  subsidence  of  the 
surface,  making  it  necessary  to  provide  more  ditches  to  remove 
the  water,  after  a  flooding  of  the  field,  with  sufficient  rapidity 
and  completeness.  These  ditches,  which  are,  perhaps,  but  two 
feet  wide  and  deep,  are  dug  between  the  crops,  from  time  to  time, 
until  all  the  fields  are  divided  into  rectangular  beds  of  a  half  or 
a  quarter-acre  each.  Now,  when  the  gates  are  open,  at  the  fall 
of  tide,  any  water  that  is  on  the  beds  flows  rapidly  into  these 
minor  drains  (or  "  quarter  ditches  "),  from  these  into  the  outside 
ditches  of  each  field,  and  from  these  through  the  field  trunks  into 
the  canal,  or  the  main  embankment  ditch,  and  from  this  through 
the  main  trunk  into  the  river.  The  gates  in  the  trunk  are  made 
with  valves,  that  are  closed  by  the  rise  of  water  in  the  river,  so 
as  not  to  again  admit  it.  Another  set  of  gates,  provided  with 
valves  opening  the  other  way,  are  shut  down,  and  the  former  are 
drawn  up,  when  it  is  wished  to  admit  the  water,  and  to  prevent 
its  outflow. 

The  fields  can  each  be  flooded  to  any  hight,  and  the  water 
retained  upon  them  to  any  length  of  time  desired.  The  only 
exceptions  to  this  sometimes  occur  on  those  plantations  nearest 
the  sea,  and  those  furthest  removed  from  it.  On  the  lower 
plantations,  the  tide  does  not  always  fall  low  enough,  for  a  few 
days  at  a  time,  to  draw  off  the  water  completely ;  and  on  the 
upper  ones,  it  may  not  always  rise  high  enough  to  sufficiently 


RICE     AND     ITS     CULTURE.  469 

flood  the  fields.  The  planter  must  then  wait  for  spring-tides,  or 
for  a  wind  from  seaward,  that  shall  "  set  up  "  the  water  in  the 
river. 

"freshes"  and  "salts." 

In  times  of  freshet  of  the  river,  too,  it  will  be  impossible  to 
drain  a  greater  or  less  number  of  the  plantations  upon  it.  These 
circumstances  occurring  at  critical  periods  of  the  growth  of  the 
rice-plant,  always  have  a  great  effect  upon  the  crop,  and  are 
referred  to  in  factors'  and  brokers'  reports,  and  are  often  noticed 
in  the  commercial  newspapers. 

There  is  another  circumstance,  however,  connected  with  the 
character  of  the  season  for  rain,  that  still  more  essentially  con- 
cerns the  interests  of  the  rice-planters,  especially  those  nearest 
the  ocean.  In  a  very  dry  season,  the  rivers  being  low,  the 
ocean  water,  impregnated  with  salt,  is  carried  further  up  than 
usual.  Salt  is  poisonous  to  the  rice-plant ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  unless  it  is  flooded  from  the  river,  no  crop  can  be  made. 
The  longer  the  drought  continues,  the  greater  this  difficulty 
becomes,  and  the  higher  up  it  extends. 

An  expanse  of  old  rice  ground,  a  nearly  perfect  plain  surface, 
with  its  waving,  clean,  bright  verdure,  stretching  unbroken, 
except  by  the  straight  and  parallel  lines  of  ditch  and  wall,  to  the 
horizon's  edge  before  you,  bounded  on  one  side  by  the  silver 
thread  of  the  river,  on  the  other  by  the  dark  curtain  of  the  pine 
forest,  is  said  to  be  a  very  beautiful  sight.  But  the  new  planta- 
tion, as  I  saw  it  in  February,  the  ground  covered  thickly  with 
small  stumps,  and  strown  with  brands  and  cinders,  and  half- 
burnt  logs,   with  here  and  there   an  old  trunk   still  standing. 


470  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

seared  and  burned,  and  denuded  of  foliage,  with  a  company  of 
clumsy  and  uncouth  black  women,  armed  with  axes,  shovels  and 
hoes,  and  directed  by  a  stalwart  black  man,  armed  with  a  whip, 
all  slopping  about  in  the  black,  unctuous  mire  at  tbe  bottom  of 
the  ditches,  is  a  very  dreary  scene. 

CHOPPING,    MASHING,    TRENCHING,    AND    SOWING. 

In  preparing  the  ground  for  the  crop,  it  is  first  thoroughly 
"  chopped,"  as  the  operation  with  the  thick,  clumsy,  heavy  hoe 
is  appropriately  termed.  This  rudely  turns,  mixes,  and  levels 
the  surface,  two  or  three  inches  in  depth.  It  is  repeated  as 
near  as  possible  to  the  planting  time,  the  soil  being  made  as  fine 
and  friable,  by  crushing  the  clods,  as  possible — whence  this 
second  hoeing  is  termed  the  "mash."  From  the  middle  of 
March  to  the  first  of  April  planting  commences,  the  first  opera- 
tion in  which  is  opening  drills,  or,  as  it  is  termed  on  the  planta- 
tion, "  trenching."  This  is  done  with  narrow  hoes,  the  drills 
or  trenches  being  chopped  out  about  four  inches  wide,  two 
inches  deep,  and  thirteen  inches  apart.  To  guide  the  trenchers, 
a  few  drills  are  first  opened  by  expert  hands,  four  feet  four  inches 
apart,  stakes  being  set  to  direct  them  ;  the  common  hands  then 
open  two  between  each  of  these  guide  rows,  measuring  the  dis- 
tance only  by  the  eye.  The  accuracy  with  which  the  lines  are 
made  straight  is  said  to  be  astonishing ;  and  this,  as  well  as  the 
plowing,  and  many  other  operations  performed-  by  negroes,  as  I 
have  had  occasion  to  notice  with  colored  laborers  at  the  North, 
no  less  than  among  the  slaves,  indicates  that  the  race  generally 
has  a  good  "  mathematical  eye,"  much  more  so  at  least  than  the 
Irish. 

As  fast  as  the  trenches  are  made,  light  hands  follow,  strewing 


RICE     AND     ITS     CULTURE.  471 

the  aeed  in  them.  It  is  sowed  very  thickly  through  the  breadth 
of  the  trenches,  so  that  from  two  to  three  bushels  of  rice  are 
used  upon  an  acre.  The  seed  is  lightly  covered  with  hoes  as 
rapidly  as  possible  after  it  is  sowed. 

FLOWING,    AND    CULTIVATION    OF    THE    CROP. 

The  force  employed  must  always  be  large  enough  to  complete 
the  sowing  of  each  field  on  the  day  it  is  begun.  The  outer  gate 
in  the  trunk  is  opened  as  soon  as  the  sowing  is  finished;  and  on 
the  next  rise  of  tide  the  water  flows  in,  fills  the  ditches,  and 
gradually  rises  until  the  whole  ground  is  covered. 

This  is  termed  the  "  sprout  flow,"  and  the  water  is  left  on  the 
field  until  the  seed  sprouts — from  a  week  to  a  fortnight,  accord- 
ing to  the  warmth  of  the  season.  It  is  then  drawn  off,  and 
the  field  is  left  until  the  points  of  the  shoots  of  the  young 
plants  appear  above  ground,  when  the  second  flooding  is  given 
it,  called  the  "point  flow."  At  this  time,  the  water  remains 
on  till  all  the  grass  and  weeds  that  have  come  up  with  the  rice 
are  killed,  and  until  the  rice  itself  is  three  or  four  inches  in 
hight,  and  so  strong  that  the  birds  cannot  pull  it  up.  As  soon 
as  the  ground  is  sufficiently  dry,  after  the  "  point  flow,"  the  rice 
is  hoed,  and  a  fortnight  or  three  weeks  later  it  is  hoed  again, 
remaining  dry  in  the  mean  time.  As  soon,  after  the  second 
hoeing,  as  the  weeds  are  killed  by  the  sun  (or,  if  rainy  weather, 
immediately,  so  as  to  float  them  off),  the  field  is  again  flooded, 
the  water  being  allowed  to  rise  at  first  well  above  all  the  plants, 
that  the  weeds  and  rubbish  which  will  float  may  drift  to  the 
sides  of  the  field,  where  they  are  raked  out,  dried  and  burned : 
the  water  is  then  lowered,  so  that  the  points  of  the  rice  may  be 
seen  above  it.     The-  rice  will  be  from  six  inches  to  one  foot  in 


472  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

hight  at  this  time,  and  the  water  remains  on  at  the  same  hight 
for.  two  or  three  weeks.  The  exact  time  for  drawing  it  off  is 
determined  by  the  appearance  of  the  rice,  and  is  a  point  requir- 
ing an  experienced  and  discreet  judgment  to  decide.  This  is 
called  the  "  long  flow." 

The  field  is  again  left  to  dry,  after  which  it  receives  a  third 
and  a  fourth  hoeing,  and,  when  it  is  judged  to  need  it,  the  water 
is  again  let  on  to  a  depth  that  will  not  quite  cover  the  rice,  and 
now  remains  on  till  harvest. 

The  negroes  are  employed,  until  the  rice  is  headed,  in  wading 
through  it,  and  collecting  and  bringing  out  in  baskets  any 
aquatic  grasses  or  volunteer  rice  that  have  grown  in  the 
trenches.  "Volunteer  rice"  is  such  as  is  produced  by  seed 
that  has  remained  on  the  ground  during  the  winter,  and  is  of 
such  inferior  quality  that,  if  it  is  left  to  be  threshed  with  the 
crop,  it  injures  its  salable  value  much  more  than  the  addition  it 
makes  to  its  quantity  is  worth. 

When  the  rice  has  headed,  the  water  is  raised  still  higher,  for 
the  purpose  of  supporting  the  heavy  crop,  and  to  prevent  the 
straw  from  being  tangled  or  "  laid  "  by  the  wind,  until  it  is  ripe 
for  the  sickle. 

The  system  of  culture  and  irrigation  which  I  have  described 
is  that  most  extensively  practiced ;  but  there  are  several  modifi- 
cations of  it,  used  to  a  greater  or  less  extent.  One  of  these  is 
called  "planting  in  the  open  trench;"  in  which  the  seed  is 
prepared  by  washing  it  with  muddy  water,  and  drying  it,  so  that 
a  slight  coating  of  clay  remains  upon  it,  which,  after  it  is  sown, 
is  sufficient  to  prevent  its  rising  out  of  the  trench  when  the  field 
is  flooded.  This  saves  the  labor  of  covering  it,  and  the  water 
being  let  on  at  once  after  the  sowing,  it  is  protected  from  birds. 


RICE     AND     ITS     CULTURE.  473 

The  water  remains  until  the  plant  has  attained  a  certain  size 
and  color  (commonly  from  two  to  three  weeks),  when  it  is  with- 
drawn, and  the  subsequent  culture  is  the  same  as  I  have  de- 
scribed, after  the  second  or  "point"  flow,  in  the  first  plan. 
The  "long  flow"  and  the  "lay-by  flow"  are  sometimes  united, 
the  water  being  gradually  raised,  as  the  plant  increases  in 
hight,  and  only  drawn  off  temporarily  and  partially,  to  supply 
its  place  with  fresh,  to  prevent  stagnation,  or  to  admit  the 
negroes  to  go  over  the  field  to  collect  weeds,  etc.  When  this 
follows  the  open  trench  planting,  the  rice  is  flooded  during  all 
but  perhaps  two  weeks  of  its  growth,  and  receives  but  two 
instead  of  four  hoeings.  Some  keep  the  water  on  as  much  as 
possible,  only  drawing  off  for  barely  the  time  required  for  the 
negroes  to  hoe  it,  when  necessary  to  free  the  crop  from  weeds. 
Good  planters  use  these  and  other  modifications  of  the  usual 
plan,  according  to  the  season,  each  having  occasional  advan- 
tages. 

It  will  be  obvious  that  in  each  method,  the  irrigation,  by  pro- 
tecting the  seed  and  plants,  destroying  weeds  and  vermin,  and 
mechanically  sustaining  the  crop,  allows  a  great  deal  of  labor  to 
be  dispensed  with,  which,  with  an  unirrigated  crop,  would  be 
desirable.  This  economy  of  labor  is  probably  of  greater  con- 
sequence than  the  excessive  moisture  afforded  the  plant.  Crops 
of  rice  have  been  grown  on  ordinarily  dry  upland,  in  the  interior 
of  the  State,  quite  as  large  as  the  average  of  those  of  the  tidal- 
swamps,  but,  of  course,  with  an  immensely  greater  expense  in 
tillage. 

I  should  remark,  also,  that  as  moisture  can  be  commanded  at 
pleasure,  it  is  of  much  less  consequence  to  be  particular  as  to 
the  time  of  seeding,  than  it  would  otherwise  be.     One  field  is 


474  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

sowed  after  another,  during  a  jjeriod  of  two  months.  The 
Sowings,  tillage  and  harvest  of  one  may  follow  that  of  another, 
in  almost  equally  prolonged  succession.  A  large  plantation  of 
rice  may  therefore  be  taken  proper  care  of  with  a  much  smaller 
force  of  hands  than  would  otherwise  be  necessary.  Many  of 
these  advantages,'  the  Northern  farmer  should  not  neglect  to 
consider,  would  be  possessed  by  grass  meadows,  similarly  sub- 
ject to  irrigation. 

HARVEST. 

The  rice-harvest  commences  early  in  September.  The  water 
having  been  all  drawn  off  the  field  the  previous  ebb  tide,  the 
negroes  reap  the  rice  with  sickles,  taking  three  or  four  rows  of 
it  at  a  cut.  The  stubble  is  left  about  a  foot  in  hight,  and  the 
rice  is  laid  across  the  top  of  it,  so  that  it  will  dry  rapidly.  One 
or  two  days  afterwards  it  is  tied  in  small  sheaves,  and  then  imme- 
diately carried  to  the  barn  or  stack-yard.  This  is  often  some 
miles  distant ;  yet  the  whole  crop  of  many  plantations  is  trans- 
ported to  it  on  the  heads  of  the  laborers.  This  work,  at  the 
hottest  season  of  the  year,  in  the  midst  of  the  recently-exposed 
mire  of  the  rice-fields,  is  acknowledged  to  be  exceedingly  severe, 
and  must  be  very  hazardous  to  the  health,  even  of  negroes. 
Overseers,  who  consider  themselves  acclimated,  and  who,  per- 
haps, only  spend  the  day  on  the  plantation,  often  at  this  time 
contract  intermittent  fever,  which,  though  not  in  itself  immedi- 
ately dangerous,  shatters  the  constitution,  and  renders  them 
peculiarly  liable  to  pneumonia,  or  other  complaints  which  are 
fatal.  When  there  is  a  canal  running  in  the  rear  of  the  planta- 
tion, a  part  of  the  transportation  of  the  crop  is  made  by  scows ; 
and  very  recently,  a  low,  broad-wheeled  cart  or  truck,  which  can 


RICE     AND     ITS     CULTURE.  475 

be  drawn  by  negroes  on  the  embankments,  has  been  introduced, 
first  at  the  suggestion  of  a  Northerner,  to  relieve  the  labor. 

The  rice  is  neatly  stacked,  much  as  wheat  is  in  Scotland,  in 
round,  thatched  stacks.  Threshing  commences  immediately 
after"  harvest,  and  on  many  plantations  proceeds  very  tediously, 
in  the  old  way  of  threshing  wheat,  with  flails,  by  hand,  occupy- 
ing the  best  of  the  plantation  force  for  the  most  of  the  winter. 
It  is  done  on  an  earthen  floor,  in  the  open  air,  and  the  rice  is 
cleaned  by  carrying  it  on  the  heads  of  the  negroes,  by  a  ladder, 
up  on  to  a  platform,  twenty  feet  from  the  ground,  and  pouring 
it  slowly  clown,  so  that  the  wind  will  drive  oft*  the  chaff,  and 
leave  the  grain  in  a  heap,  under  the  platform.  But  on  most 
large  plantations,  threshing-machines,  much  the  same  as  are  used 
with  us,  driven  either  by  horse-power  or  by  steam-power,  have 
been  lately  adopted,  of  course,  with  great  economy.  Where 
horse-power  is  used  for  threshing,  the  wind  is  still  often  relied 
upon  for  removing  the  chaff,  as  of  old ;  but  where  steam-engines 
are  employed,  there  are  often  connected  with  the  threshing-mill, 
very  complete  separators  and  fanners,  together  with  elevators 
and  other  labor-saving  machinery,  some  of  it  the  best  for  such 
purposes  that  I  have  ever  seen. 


After  the  ordinary  threshing  and  cleaning  from  chaff,  the  rice 
still  remains  covered  with  a  close,  rough  husk,  which  can  only 
be  removed  by  a  peculiar  machine,  that  lightly  pounds  it,  so  as 
to  crack  the  husk  without  breaking  the  rice.  Many  of  the 
largest  plantations  are  provided  with  these  mills,  but  it  is  now 
found  more  profitable  (where  the  expense  of  procuring  them  has 
not  been  already  incurred),  to  sell  the  rice  "  in  the  rough,"  as  it 


476  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

is  termed,  before  the  husk  is  removed.  There  are  very  exten- 
sive rice-hulling  mills  in  most  large  towns  in  Europe  and 
America.  In  most  of  the  European  States  a  discriminating 
duty  in  favor  of  rough  rice  is  laid  on  its  importation,  to  protect 
these  establishments.  The  real  economy  of  the  system  is 
probably  to  be  found  in  the  fact,  that  rice  in  the  rough  bears 
transportation  better  than  that  which  is  cleaned  on  the  planta- 
tion; also,  that  when  fresh  cleaned  it  is  brighter  and  more 
salable.  Eice  in  the  rough  is  also  termed  "  paddy,"  an  East 
Indian  word,  having  originally  this  signification. 

The  usual  crop  of  rice  is  from  thirty  to  sixty  bushels  from  an 
acre,  but  even  as  high  as  one  hundred  bushels  is  sometimes 
obtained.  Its  weight  (in  the  rough)  is  from  forty-one  to  forty- 
nine  pounds  per  bushel.  The  usual  price  paid  for  it  (in  the 
rough),  in  Charleston  and  Savannah,  is  from  eighty  cents  to  one 
dollar  a  bushel. 

Planters  usually  employ  their  factors — merchants  residing  in 
Charleston,  Savannah,  or  Wilmington,  the  three  rice  ports — to 
sell  their  crop  by  sample.  The  purchasers  are  merchants,  or 
mill-owners,  or  the  agents  of  foreign  rice-mills.  These  factors 
are  also  employed  by  tne  planters  as  their  general  business 
agents,  making  the  necessary  purchase  of  stores  and  stock  for 
their  plantation  and  family  supply.  Their  commission  is  2J  per 
cent. 

Eice  is  used  in  the  rice-district  as  a  constant  article  of  food, 
never  being  absent  from  the  breakfast  and  dinner-table  of  many 
families.  On  the  rice-plantations,  particularly  those  furnished 
with  a  hulling-mill,  it  is  given  a  good  deal  to  the  negroes,  more 
especially  during  the  seasons  of  their  harvest  labor,  and  at  the 
holidays.     From  this  circumstance,  I  judge  that  it  is  thought 


RICE     ANL     ITS     CULTURE.  477 

better  food  than  maize,  although  the  cracked  and  inferior  rice, 
that  would  be  unmerchantable,  is  alone  given  them.  Some 
planters,  however,  say  that  the  cracked  rice  (broken  in  the  pro- 
cess of  removing  the  hull)  is  better  than  the  prime,  and  they 
prefer  it  for  their  own  table.  Eice  is  screened  after  the  hull  is 
removed,  so  as  to  produce  several  different  classes,  the  difference 
in  which  is  mainly  in  size,  the  lower  denominations  including 
only  chips  and  powder  of  the  grain.  The  classes  are  indicated 
as  follows,  at  the  mills  of  Mr.  Bilby,  of  New  York,  where  one 
thousand  bushels  of  paddy,  or  rough  rice,  produced : 


16,078  lbs.  of-  "  best  head"  rice. 
596  "     of  "  best  prime"  rice. 
9,190  "     of  "  good  to  fair." 


3,243  lbs.  of  "  broken"  rice. 

570  "     of  "  chits"  or  "  small." 
5,210  "     of  "  flour"  or  "  douse." 


In  the  Carolina  mills  the  product  is  divided  into  "  prime," 
"middling"  (broken),  "small"  or  "chits,"  and  "flour"  or 
"  douse." 

Prime  rice,  at  the  best  mills,  is  not  only  separated  from  all 
of  inferior  quality,  and  from  all  sand  and  impurities,  but  each 
grain  is  actually  polished  ;  the  last  operation  at  the  mill  being, 
to  force  it  through  a  rapidly  revolving  cylinder,  of  woven  wire, 
between  which  and  a  sheep-skin  flap  it  is  obliged  to  rub  its  way 
to  the  shoot,  which  lets  it  out  into  the  sack  or  barrel  in  which 
it  is  transferred  to  the  grocer. 

Having  thus  described  its  progress,  from  the  dark  mire  of  its 
amphibious  birth  till  it  bas  become,  at  length,  the  clean,  lustrous, 
translucent,  pearly,  and  most  beautiful  of  grains,  I  will  add 
directions  for  preparing  it  for  the  table,  according  to  the  most 
esteemed  plantation  method. 

Kice  is  increased  in  bulk,  by  boiling,  150  per  cent.,  and  in 
weight,  100  per  cent.     Wash  it  thoroughly  in  cold  water;  have 


478  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

your  pot  of  water  (two  quarts  for  every  half-pint  of  rice) 
boiling — add  salt  at  discretion ;  put  the  rice  in,  and  stir  it  while 
boiling ;  let  it  boil  four  minutes  (some  say  ten,  and  some  say 
fifteen) ;  then  pour  off  the  water  as  close  as  you  can  without 
stirring  the  rice ;  set  the  pot  on  some  coals,  and  cover  it ;  let  it 
remain  twenty  minutes,  and  then  dish  up.  Each  grain,  by  this 
method,  will  be  swollen  and  soft,  without  having  lost  its  indi- 
viduality, and  the  dish  Avill  be  light,  palatable,  and  nutritious. 
Those  who  prefer  a  sodden,  starchy,  porridge-like  mess,  may 
boil  it  longer,  and  neglect  to  steam  it.  A  very  delicate  break- 
fast-roll is  made  in  Georgia,  by  mixing  hominy  or  rice,  boiled 
soft,  with  rice-flour,  and  milk,  in  a  stiff  batter,  to  which  an  egg 
and  salt  may  be  added.  It  is  kept  over  night  in  a  cool  place, 
and  baked,  so  as  to  brought  hot  to  the  breakfast-table. 

SLAVE  LABOR    AS    APPLIED    ON    THE    PJCE    PLANTATIONS. 

The  system  of  working  slaves  by  tasks,  common  on  the  large 
cotton  plantations  of  the  Atlantic  States,  as  well  as  the  rice 
plantations,  has  certainly  great  advantages.  The  slave  works 
more  rapidly,  energetically,  and,  within  narrow  limits,  with  much 
greater  use  of  discretion,  or  skill,  than  he  is  often  found  to  do 
elsewhere.  Could  the  hope  of  reward  for  faithfulness  be  added 
to  the  fear  of  punishment  for  negligence,  and  some  encourage- 
ment be  offered  to  the  laborer,  to  apply  his  mind  to  a  more 
distant  and  elevated  result  than  release  from  his  day's  toil — 
as,  it  seems  to  me,  there  easily  might  be — it  would,  inevitably, 
have  not  only  an  improving  effect  upon  his  character,  but  would 
make  way  for  a  vastly  more  economical  application  of  his  labor. 

On  the  contrary,  however,  the  tasked  laborer  is  always  watched 
as  closely  as  possible — a  driver  standing  by,  often  with  a  whip 


RICE     AND     ITS     CULTURE.  479 

in  his  Land,  that  he  may  he  afraid  to  do  his  work  slightingly. 
Under  the  most  favorable  circumstances,  by  the  most  liberal  and 
intelligent  proprietors,  he  is  trusted  as  little  as  possible  to  use 
his  own  discretion,  and  it  is  taken  for  granted  that  he  will  never 
do  anything  desired  of  him  that  he  dares  avoid. 

Take  men  of  any  original  character  of  mind,  and  use  them  as, 
mere  animal  machines,  to  be  operated  only  by  the  motive-power 
of  fear;  provide  for  the  necessities  of  their  animal  life  in  such 
a  way  that  the  cravings  of  their  body  shall  afford  no  stimulus  to 
contrivance,  labor,  and  providence ;  work  them  mechanically, 
under  a  task-master,  so  that  they  shall  have  no  occasion  to  use 
discretion,  except  to  avoid  the  imposition  of  additional  labor,  or 
other  punishment;  deny  them,  as  much  as  possible,  the  means 
of  enlarged  information,  and  high  mental  culture — and  what  can 
be  expected  of  them,  but  continued,  if  not  continually  increasing 
stupidity,  indolence,  wastefulness,  and  treachery? 

Put  the  best  race  of  men  under  heaven  into  a  land  where  all 
industry  is  obliged  to  bear  the  weight  of  such  a  system,  and 
inevitably  their  ingenuity,  enterprise,  and  skill  will  be  paralyzed, 
the  land  will  be  impoverished,  its  resources  of  wealth  will  remain 
undeveloped,  or  will  be  wasted ;  and  only  by  the  favor  of  some 
extraordinary  advantage  can  it  compare,  in  prosperity,  with 
countries  adjoining,  in  which  a  more  simple,  natural,  and  healthy 
system  of  labor  prevails. 

Such  is  the  case  with  the  Slave  States.  On  what  does  their 
wealth  and  prosperity,  such  as  it  is,  depend?  On  certain  cir- 
cumstances of  topography,  climate,  and  soil,  that  give  them 
almost  a  monopoly  of  supplying  to  the  world  the  most  import- 
ant article  of  its  commerce. 

Conventions  of  planters,  met  to  consider  preposterous  propo- 


480  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

sitions  for  "regulating  the  Cotton  Market,"  annually  con- 
fess that  if  the  price  of  this  staple  should  be  very  greatly 
reduced,  by  its  extended  culture  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  or 
by  any  cause  greatly  diminishing  its  consumption,  every  proprie- 
tor at  the  South  would  be  ruined.  If  this  humiliating  state  of 
things,  extending  over  so  large  a  region,  and  yet  so  distinctly 
defined  by  the  identical  lines  that  separate  the  Slave  from  the 
Free  States,  is  not  caused  by  the  peculiar  system  of  labor  which 
distinguishes  the  former,  there  is,  at  least,  an  appearance  of 
reason  in  the  fanaticism  that  votes,  on  that  supposition,  not  to 
extend  the  area  devoted  to  the  experiment. 

On  the  rice  plantation  which  I  have  particularly  described,  the 
slaves  were,  I  judge,  treated  with  at  least  as  much  discretion 
and  judicious  consideration  of  economy,  consistently  with  hu- 
mane regard  to  their  health,  comfort,  and  morals,  as  on  any 
other  in  all  the  Slave  States ;  yet  I  could  not  avoid  observ- 
ing— and  I  certainly  took  no  pains  to  do  so,  nor  were  any  special 
facilities  offered  me  for  it — repeated  instances  of  that  waste  and 
misapplication  of  labor  which  it  can  never  be  possible  to  guard 
against,  when  the  agents  of  industry  are  slaves.  Many  such 
evidences  of  waste  it  would  not  be  easy  to  specify ;  and  others, 
which  remain  in  my  memory  after  some  weeks,  do  not  adequate- 
ly account  for  the  general  impression  that  all  I  saw  gave  me  ;  but 
there  were,  for  instance,  under  my  observation,  gates  left  open  and 
bars  left  down,  against  standing  orders  ;  rails  removed  from  fences 
by  the  negroes,  as  was  conjectured,  to  kindle  their  fires  with ; 
mules  lamed,  and  implements  broken,  by  careless  usage ;  a  flat- 
boat,  carelessly  secured,  going  adrift  on  the  river ;  men  ordered 
to  cart  rails  for  a  new  fence,  depositing  them  so  that  a  double 
expense  of  labor  would  be  required  to  lay  them,  more  than 


RICE     AND     ITS     CULTURE.  481 

would  have  been  needed  if  they  had  been  placed,  as  they  might 
almost  as  easily  have  been,  by  a  slight  exercise  of  forethought ; 
men,  ordered  to  fill  up  holes  made  by  alligators  or  craw-fish  in 
an  important  embankment,  discovered  to  have  merely  patched 
over  the  outside,  having  taken  pains  only  to  make  it  appear  that 
they  had  executed  their  task — not  having  been  overlooked  while 
doing  it,  by  a  driver ;  men,  not  having  performed  duties  that  were 
entrusted  to  them,  making  statements  which  their  owner  was 
obliged  to  receive  as  sufficient  excuse,  though,  he  told  me,  he 
felt  assured  they  were  false — all  going  to  show  habitual  care- 
lessness, indolence,  and  mere  eye-service. 

The  constant  misapplication  and  waste  of  labor  on  many  of 
the  rice  plantations,  is  inconceivably  great.  Owing  to  the  pro- 
verbial  stupidity  and  dogged  prejudice  of  the  negro  (but  peculiar 
to  him  only  as  he  is  more  carefully  poisoned  with  ignorance  than 
the  laborer  of  other  countries),  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  intro- 
duce new  and  improved  methods  of  applying  his  labor.  He  always 
strongly  objects  to  all  new-fashioned  implements  ;  and,  if  they  are 
forced  into  his  hands,  will  do  his  best  to  break  them,  or  to  make 
them  only  do  such  work  as  shall  compare  unfavorably  with  what 
he  has  been  accustomed  to  do  without  them.  It  is  a  common 
thing,  I  am  told,  to  see  a  large  gang  of  negroes,  each  carrying 
about  four  shovelsful  of  earth  upon  a  board  balanced  on  his  head, 
walking  slowly  along  on  the  embankment,  so  as  to  travel  around 
two  sides  of  a  large  field,  perhaps  for  a  mile,  to  fill  a  breach — a 
job  which  an  equal  number  of  Irishmen  would  accomplish,  by 
laying  planks  across  the  field  and  running  wheelbarrows  upon 
them,  in  a  tenth  of  the  time.  The  clumsy  iron  hoe  is,  almost 
everywhere,  made  to  do  the  work  of  pick,  spade,  shovel,  and  plow. 

I  have  seen  it  used  to  dig  a  grave.     On  many  plantations,  a  plow 
21 


482-  OUR      SLAVE      STATES. 

has  never  been  used ;  the  land  being  entirely  prepared  for  the 
crop  by  chopping  with  the  hoe,  as  I  have  described.  There  is 
reason,  perhaps,  for  this,  on  the  newly-cleared  rice-ground, 
encumbered,  as  it  is,  with  the  close-standing  stumps  and  strong 
roots  and  protuberances  of  the  late  cypress  swamp;  though,  I 
should  suppose,  it  would  be  more  economical  to  grub  these  by 
hand,  sufficiently  to  admit  of  the  use  of  a  strong  plow.  On  old 
plantations,  where  the  stumps  have  been  removed,  the  surface  is 
like  a  garden-bed — the  soil  a  dark,  rich,  mellow,  and  exceedingly 
fine  loam,  the  proportion  of  sand  varying  very  much  in  different 
districts ;  but  always  considerable,  and  sufficient,  I  must  think, 
to  prevent  an  injurious  glazing  from  the  plow,  unless  the  land  is 
very  poorly  drained.  Yet,  even  on  these,  the  plow  is  not  in 
general  use. 

Trials  have  been  made  on  some  of  the  South  Carolina 
plantations  of  English  horse-drills,  I  understood,  without  satis- 
factory success ;  but  I  can  hardly  doubt  that  with  as  good 
laborers  as  the  common  English  clod-hoppers,  some  modifi- 
cation of  them  might  be  substituted  advantageously  for  the 
very  laborious  hoe  and  hand-process  of  planting.  I  should 
think,  too,  the  horse-hoe,  now  much  used  in  England  for  clean- 
ing wheat  (which  is  drilled  nearly  one-half  closer  than  rice 
usually  is),  might  be  adapted  to  rice-culture,  with  much  saving 
of  labor  over  the  present  method  of  hand-hoeing.  Half  an  acre 
a  day  is  the  usual  task  of  a  negro  at  this  operation.  Garrett's 
horse-hoe,  on  light  land,  will  easily  go  over  ten  acres,  employ- 
ing one  horse,  and  one  man  and,  a  boy.  The  Judges  of  the 
Koyal  Agricultural  Society,  at  a  trial  in  1851,  reported  that 
the  work  done  by  it  was  far  superior  to  any  hand-hoeing. 
It   requires    to    be  guided,    of  course,   with    great   carefulness, 


RICE     AND    ITS     CULTURE.  483 

and,  perhaps,  could  not  be  entrusted  to  ordinary  slave  field- 
hands. 

I  am  not  aware  that  any  application  of  the  reaping-machines, 
now  in  use  on  every  large  grain  farm  at  the  North,  has  been 
made  in  the  rice  harvest.  By  the  use  of  a  portable  tram-way 
for  them  to  run  upon,  I  should  think  they  might  be  substituted 
for  the  present  exceedingly  slow  and  toilsome  method  of  reaping 
with  the  sickle,  with  economy  and  great  relief  to  the  laborers. 
Such  portable  tram-ways  are  in  use  in  England  for  removing  the 
turnip  crop  from  miry  fields  in  winter ;  and  men  earn  sixty  cents 
a  day  by  contracting  to  remove  heavy  crops  at  the  rate  of  $1  50 
an  acre,  shifting  the  trams  themselves.  It  is  probable,  there- 
fore, that  the  rice  crop  might  be  taken  out  of  the  wet  ground,  and 
carried  much  more  rapidly,  and  at  less  expense,  to  the  stack-yard, 
in  this  way,  than  by  the  slow  and  cruel  method  now  employed. 

Could  these,  and  other  labor-saving  appliances,  in  general  use 
elsewhere,  be  introduced,  and  competition  of  labor  be  obtained, 
the  cost  of  raising  rice  might  probably  be  reduced  one-half. 

That  free  labor,  even  of  whites,  can  be  used  in  rice  culture,  if 
not  in  Carolina,  certainly  in  Louisiana,  the  poor  Creoles  of 
that  State  have  proved.  But  even  for  Carolina,  free  laborers 
might  be  procured  by  thousands,  within  a  year,  from  the  rice- 
region  of  China,  if  good  treatment  and  moderate  wages,  depend- 
ent on  hard  work  and  good  behavior,  could  be  sufficiently 
assured  to  them.  That  they  would  suffer  no  more  from  malaria 
than  do  the  negroes,  there  can  be  little  doubt.  And  why,  except 
for  the  sake  of  consistency,  or  for  the  purpose  of  bullying  the 
moral  sense  of  the  rest  of  mankind,  South  Carolina  should  pro- 
pose to  reestablish  the  African  slave-trade,  while  this  resource  is 
left,  I  cannot  see.     If  the  British  and  Spanish  treat  the  Chinese 


484  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

laborers,  which  they  have  imported  to  the  West  Indies,  worse 
than  if  they  were  negroes,  as  is  said,  no  evidence  is  offered  that 
such  cruelty  is  necessary.  The  Chinese  have  heathen  vices 
enough,  certainly ;  hut  the  want  of  docility  and  pains-taking 
industry  are  not  among  them.  And,  looking  from  the  purely 
economical  point  of  view,  if  orderly  industry  can  be  bought  of 
them  cheaply,  nothing  more  is  required.  And  as  regards  the 
other  main  consideration  on  which  the  re-opening  of  the  slave- 
trade  is  advocated — the  saving  of  sinners — the  souls  of  the  Chi- 
nese are  probably  as  precious  in  the  eyes  of  weeping  angels,  as 
those  of  the  cmestionably-human  races  of  Africa. 

TREATMENT  OF  NEGROES  ON  THE  RICE  PLANTATIONS. 

That  the  slaves  on  Mr.  X.'s  plantation  were  treated  with  all 
the  kindness  which  a  reasonable  desire  to  make  their  labor 
profitable,  and  a  loyal  regard  for  the  laws  of  the  State  for  the 
preservation  of  Slavery  would  allow,  was  evident.  A  little  more 
than  that  in  fact,  for  privileges  were  sometimes  oj)enly  allowed 
them,  contrary  to  the  laws.  I  was  also  satisfied,  by  the  repre- 
sentations made  to  me,  that  many  of  the  published  reports  as  to 
the  suffering  of  the  slaves  on  the  rice-plantations — like  that  in 
"Porter's  Tropical  Agriculture,"  for  instance — are  greatly 
exaggerated,  or,  at  least,  have  but  very  limited  application. 
That  the  slaves  are  sometimes  liable,  however,  to  be  treated  with 
excessive  cruelty,  and  that  often  their  situation  must  be  very 
unpleasant,  will  be  apparent  from  a  very  few  considerations. 

In  the  first  place,  if  the  humane  Mr.  X.  could,  with  impunity, 
disregard  the  laws,  for  the  purpose  of  increasing  the  comforts  of 
his  negroes,  in  so  important  a  particular  as  by  allowing  them  to 
possess,  and  keep  in  their  cabins,  guns  and  ammunition,  for  their 


RICE     AND     ITS     CULTURE.  485 

own  sport,  as  he  did,  -what  should  prevent  a  heartless  and 
unprincipled  man,  if  such  a  one  could  be  rich  enough  to  own  a 
rice-plantation,  from  equally  disregarding  the  laws,  in  the  exer- 
cise of  his  ill  humor  ?  Mr.  X.  told  me  that  he  had  sold  but 
three  slaves  off  his  plantation  in  twenty  years — and  these  either 
went  willingly,  or  were  banished  for  exceedingly  and  persistingly 
bad  conduct.  But  during  the  very  week  that  I  was  on  his 
plantation,  one  of  his  neighbors  sold  an  excellent  man  to  a 
trader,  without  any  previous  intimation  to  him  that  he  intended 
to  do  so,  without  having  any  fault  to  find  with  him,  and  without 
the  slightest  regard,  apparently,  to  the  strong  ties  of  kindred 
which  were  ruptured  in  the  transaction. 

This  gentleman,  too,  though  spoken  of  as  eccentric,  was  evi- 
dently under  no  social  taboo,  and  was,  I  believed,  considered  a 
"pious"  man.* 

Again,  Mr.  X.  had  established  regulations,  to  prevent  his 
negroes  from  being  punished  by  his  subordinates,  in  the  heat  of 
sudden  anger.  Still  another  of  his  neighbors  at  the  time  of 
my  visit,  while  in  a  drunken  frolic,  not  only  flogged  a  number 
of  his  negroes,  without  cause,  but  attempted  to  shoot  and  stab 
them ;  and  if  he  did  not  succeed  in  killing  any  of  them  outright, 
was  only  prevented  from  doing  so  by  what  the  law  would  have 
considered — and  often  has  considered — an  act  of  insubordination 
to  be  justifiably  punished  with  death. 

During  the  summer,  for  from  four  to  six  months,  at  least,  not 
one  rice-planter  in  a  hundred  resides  on  his  plantation,  but 
leaves  it,  with  all  his   slaves,  in  charge   of  an  overseer.     The 


*  Within  fifty  miles  of  this  plantation,  I  heard  a  Presbyterian  clergyman  urge 
a  man,  whom  he  had  never  before  seen,  to  purchase  some  slaves  of  him,  which 
ue  had  inherited,  and  had  in  his  possession  for  many  years. 


4-S6  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

overseers  for  rice-plantations  have  to  be  chosen  from  among  a 
population  of  whites  comparatively  very  limited  in  number : 
from  among  those,  namely,  that  have  been  born  and  reared  in 
the  miasmatic  district  of  the  coast ;  or,  if  they  are  taken  from 
elsewhere,  they  must  be  very  reckless  and  mercenary  men  who 
engage  in  so  dangerous  an  occupation. 

Mr.  X.'s  overseer  was  considered  an  uncommonly  valuable 
one.  He  had  been  in  his  employment  for  eight  years,  a  longer 
time  than  Mr.  X.  had  ever  known  any  other  overseer  to  remain 
on  one  plantation ;  yet  I  have  shown  that  Mr.  X.  thought  it 
necessary  to  restrain  his  authority  within  the  narrowest  possible 
limits  which  the  law  would  permit. 

He  spoke  of  the  character  of  overseers  in  general,  as  planters 
universally  have,  whenever  I  have  asked  information  on  the 
point,  as  exceedingly  bad.  It  was  rare  that  an  overseer  remained 
more  than  two  years  in  succession  on  the  same  plantation ;  and 
often  they  were  changed  every  year.  They  were  almost  univer- 
sally drunken  and  dissolute,  and  constantly  liable  to  neglect 
their  duties.  Their  families,  when  they  had  them,  were  generally 
unhappy.  They  were  excessively  extravagant ;  and  but  a  few 
ever  saved  anything  year  by  year  from  their  wages. 

The  Southern  Agriculturist,  published  at  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  says : — 

"  Overseers  are  changed  every  year  :  a  few  remain  four  or  five  years  ; 
but  the  average  length  of  time  they  remain  on  the  same  plantation  will 
not  exceed  two  years. 

— "  What  are  the  general  characters  of  overseers  ?  They  are  taken 
from  the  lowest  grade  of  society,  and  seldom  have  had  the  privilege  of  a 
religious  education,  and  have  no  fear  of  offending  God,  and  consequent- 
ly no  check  on  their  natural  propensities ;  they  give  way  to  passion, 
intemperance,  and  every  sin,  and  become  savages  in  their  conduct." — 
Southern  Agriculturist,  Vol.  IV.,  page  351. 


RICE     AND     ITS     CULTURE.  4S7 

A  writer  in  the  " South  Carolinian"  published  at  the  capital 
of  the  State,  says  : — 

— "  Somehow,  many  persons  improperly  consider  overseeing  as  a 
degrading  occupation.  I  do  not  see  why.  Probably  the  notion  arises 
from  the  impression  that  everything  is  done  on  a  plantation  by  dint  of 
lashing.  When  this  is  the  case,  it  is  the  fault  of  the  overseer.  My 
opinion  is,  that  of  all  punishments  it  is  the  least  efficacious,  and  that 
fifteen  or  twenty  lashes,  lightly  inflicted,  are  as  much  as  should  ever  be 
given.  For  serious  offenses,  other  punishments,  such  as  solitary  con- 
finement, should  be  resorted  to.  I  am  happy  to  think  this  idea  is 
rapidly  gaining  ground  among  planters  ;  and  could  they  entirely  control 
their  overseers,  or  obtain  overseers  of  better  education,  a  most  import- 
ant change  in  this  particular  would  soon  be  accomplished." 

The  writer  is  speaking  of  the  cotton  planters  of  the  interior, 
who  reside  on  their  plantations,  and  are  under  no  necessity  of 
leaving  them  during  the  summer,  as  are  rice-planters. 

These  extracts,  in  connection  with  the  well  known  facts  to 
which  I  have  referred,  prove,  beyond  a  question,  that  the  slaves 
of  the  most  humane  rice-planters  are  exceedingly  likely  to  be 
subject  to  the  uncontrolled  tyranny  of  men  of  the  most  heartless 
and  reckless  disposition. 

The  precariousness  of  the  much-vaunted  happiness  of  the 
slaves  can  need  but  one  further  reflection  to  be  appreciated.  No 
white  man  can  be  condemned  for  any  cruelty  or  neglect,  no 
matter  how  fiendish,  on  slave  testimony.  The  rice-plantations 
generally  are  in  a  region  very  sparsely  occupied  by  whites  :  the 
plantations  are  nearly  all  very  large — often  miles  across  :  many  a 
one  of  them  occupying  the  whole  of  an  island — and  rarely  is  there 
more  than  one  white  man  upon  a  plantation  at  a  time,  during 
the  summer.  Upon  this  one  man  each  slave  is  dependent,  even 
for  the  necessities  of  life. 

What  laboring  man  in  the  free  States  can  truly  be  told  that 


488  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

the  slaves  are  better  off  than  he  is  ?  Nay,  in  Europe,  who 
desires  to  change  his  circumstances  for  these  ?  Does  not  Mr. 
Geo.  Sanders  rather  overdo  his  part,  when  he  tells  the  French 
Democrats  that  the  working-men  of  France  are  in  far  worse 
circumstances  than  the  American  slaves  ?  What  Frenchman, 
about  starving  to  death,  is  desirous  that  his  wife  and  children 
sball  be  " provided  for "  during  life,  in  the  Carolina  method? 
Disgraceful  to  mankind  as  is  the  Napoleonic  usurpation,  this  is 
more  so.  It  is  not  our  business  to  interfere  with  it,  I  may 
admit ;  but  I  must  expose  the  sophistry  by  which  we  are  coaxed 
to  aid  and  comfort  it. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

EXPERIMENTAL    POLITICAL    ECONOMY    OP    SOUTH 
CAROLINA    AND    GEORGIA. 

"Ill  fares  the  land,  to  hastening  ills  a  prey, 
Where  wealth  accumulates  and  men  decay." 

The  Deserted  Village. 

"  Laws  grind  the  poor,  and  rich  men  guide  the  law." — The  Traveler. 

"  Laws,  to  be  just,  must  give  a  reciprocation  of  right ;  without  this,  they  are 
mere  arbitrary  rules." — Jefferson. 

"  It  is  plain  that  a  party  so  confided  in  as  even  a  common  plowman  must  be, 
ought  not  to  have  his  sense  of  responsibility  blunted." — Blackwood. 

"But,  gentlemen,  there  are  two  kinds  of  labor  ;  intelligent  and  unintelligent 
labor :  the  former  is  that  which  gives  character  to  a  nation,  and  in  giving 
character  gives  wealth  and  power.  Hence,  I  say,  encourage  the  education  of 
all  the  people,  for  by  so  doing  you  will  promote  the  elevation  of  character,  and 

give  that  dignity  to  the  founders  of  wealth,  which  is  justly  their  due." Abbott 

Lawrence. 

Aristocracy,  or  an  established  superior  class,  necessitates 
inferiority,  or  a  subject  class,  at  whose  expense,  in  some  way, 
the  aristocracy  is  supported.  In  a  rude  society,  aristocracy  may 
be  an  economical  institution,  inasmuch  as  by  the  same  means 
that  it  has  power  to  rule  the  people,  it  is  able  also  to  defend 
their  commonwealth.  The  ruder,  the  more  barbarous,  and  the 
more  villainous  the  state  of  society,  the  more  easily  will  aristo- 
cratic government  be  supported  by  the  people,  as  being  less 
expensive  than  a  constant  liability  to  more  improvident  and 
unsystematized  plundering  of  the  results  of  labor.     As  society 

approaches  civilization,  and  the  people  of  a  state  grow  more  and 
21* 


490  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

more  gentle,  discreet,  and  individually  proud,  self-disciplined, 
and  self-maintaining,  the  use  of  an  aristocracy  becomes  less,  and 
the  burden  of  supporting  it  is  less  contentedly  borne.  Finally, 
mankind  arrives  at  the  Democratic  republic,  in  which  the  clerks 
and  guards  of  the  common  business  of  a  common  wealth,  instead 
of  being  made  the  rulers  are  simply  members  of  the  partnership 
of  a  community,  appointed  by  their  fellow-partners  to  transact, 
agreeably  to  then-  instructions,  such  business  as  they  shall  have 
agreed  to  have  done  in  common. 

Every  real  movement  of  societies  towards  this  system  will  be 
favorable  to  their  moral,  mental,  and  material  prosperity.  A 
man  will,  as  a  general  rule,  always  work  harder,  more  skillfully, 
and  with  more  exercise  of  discretion,  for  himself  than  for  any  one 
else;  especially  so  if  his  work  for  another  is  not  wholly  volun- 
tary, and  his  task  self-imposed.  So  of  bodies  of  men :  all  the 
faculties  and  talents,  art-conception,  inventive-genius,  investigat- 
ing-enterprise,  order  and  precision,  as  well  as  muscular  power, 
will  be  developed  and  exerted  by  any  man,  and  by  any  body  of 
men,  in  proportion  to  the  individual  freedom  with  which  they 
are  directed,  in  proportion  to  the  voluntariness — the  good  will 
with  which  they  are  exercised. 

And  where  a  man  has  these  ease,  delight,  and  comfort-pro- 
ducing faculties  exercised  for  him  by  another,  whether  superior 
or  inferior  to  him,  the  less  will  he  be  likely  to  exercise  them  for 
himself — the  less  perfectly,  the  less  productively. 

Whatever  is  to  the  real  advantage  of  any  man,  must  be,  in 
tome  degree,  to  the  advantage  of  others,  to  all  others  in  the 
world,  but  especially  all  others  in  his  community. 

Thus  slavery,  or  aristocracy,  a  ruling  or  a  subject  class  in  a 
community,  is  in  itself  a  very  great  hindrance  to  its  industrial 


EXPERIENCE     OF     SOUTH     CAROLINA.  491 

progress;  that  is,  to  its  acquisition  of  wealth — moral,  aesthetic, 
and  mental,  as  well  as  material  wealth. 
This  is  the  way  Democrats  reason. 

SOUTH    CAROLINA    POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL   ECONOMY. 

I  do  not  wish  to  attribute  to  the  South  Carolinians  any  prin- 
ciples or  motives  which  they  would  generally  be  disposed, 
themselves,  to  doubt  or  deny.  I  believe  they  will  generally,  at 
once,  concede  the  statement  to  be  correct,  that  it  has  always 
been  the  opinion  of  the  rulers  of  their  community,  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  educate  the  laboring  mass  to  a  sufficiently  good 
judgment  to  enable  them  to  take  part  in  directing  affairs  of 
state,  and  that  the  proper  capacity  and  fitness  for  tbese  duties  is 
only  to  be  obtained  among  those  whom  wealth  has  relieved  from 
the  necessity  of  labor,  and  therefore  special  encouragement 
should  be  given  to  this  class  to  extend  its  education  to  the  utter- 
most. The  most  intelligent  government,  it  is  believed,  will  be 
the  best ;  and  as  it  is  impracticable  to  make  the  average  intelli- 
gence of  all  sorts  of  people  equal  to  the  highest  intelligence  of 
some,  the  policy  of  South  Carolina  community  has  been  to 
develop  the  highest  possible  culture  in  a  few,  and  to  manage,  in 
one  way  or  another,  to  give  political  control  to  these  few.  To 
develop,  not  the  highest  average  intelligence  practicable  among 
the  people,  and  to  trust  government  to  this  high  average,  but  to 
develop  the  highest  attainable  intelligence  in  some  originally 
fortunate  ones,  and  to  give  government  into  the  hands  of  this 
higher  intelligence. 

The  Democratic  theory  of  the  social  organization  is  every- 
where ridiculed  and  rejected,  in  public  as  well  as  in  private,  in 
the  forum  as  well  as  the  newspapers. 


492  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

The  late  G  overnor  Hammond  declared : — 

"  I  endorse,  without  reserve,  the  sentiment  of  Gov.  McDuffie,  that 
'  Slavery  is  the  very  corner-stone  of  our  republican  edifice,'  while  I  repu- 
diate, as  ridiculously  absurd,  that  much  lauded,  but  nowhere  accredited, 
motto  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  that '  all  men  are  born  free  and  equal.'  "* 

And  a  late  Chancellor  of  the  State,  in  an  address  to  its 
Society  of  Learning,  asked — in  a  connection  which  indicated 
that  he  entertained  no  doubt  that  the  opinions  of  his  audience 
coincided  with  his  own : — 

"  Would  you  do  a  benefit  to  the  horse  or  the  ox,  by  giving1  him  a 
cultivated  understanding,  or  fine  feelings  ?  So  far  as  the  mere  laborer 
has  the  pride,  the  knowledge,  or  the  aspirations  of  a  free  man,  he  is  un- 
fitted for  his  situation,  and  must  doubly  feel  its  infelicity.  If  there  are 
sordid,  servile,  and  laborious  offices  to  be  performed,  is  it  not  better 
that  there  should  be  sordid,  servile,  and  laborious  beings  to  perform 
them  ?"f 

So  far  as  the  polity  of  South  Carolina  has  differed  from  that 
of  the  other  American  States,  it  has  been  by  its  being  more 
strongly,  steadily,  and  consistently  pervaded  by  these  ideas,  than 
theirs ;  and  it  is  as  the  exponent  of  this  polity,  that  its  history 
and  present  condition  most  challenges  examination. 

ORIGIN    AND    EARLY    CHARACTER. 

In  South  Carolina,  as  in  Virginia,  the  influential  settlers  were 
"  gentlemen."     "  Many  of  them,"  says  Hewitt,  the  first  historian 


*  Letter  to  Thomas  Clarkson,  by  Got.  Hammond,  of  South  Carolina. — De 
Bow's  Review. 

t  The  Charleston  Standard,  of  Nov. — ,  1855,  contains  a  report  of  the  annual 
address  to  the  graduating  class  of  the  State  Military  Asylum,  of  another  address 
to  the  literary  societies  of  the  institution,  and  an  editorial  article  on  education  ;  in 
all  which,  the  Democratic  educational  system  of  the  North,  and  of  Prussia,  is 
ridiculed  and  condemned ;  and,  by  the  two  orators,  the  proposition  is  advocated, 
that  the  State  should  educate  only  its  capitalists  and  the  officers  or  overseers, 
who,  under  orders  of  the  capitalists,  shall  command  and  direct  the  laborers. 


EXPERIENCE     OF     SOUTH     CAROLINA.  493 

of  the  Colony,  "pampered  citizens,  whose  wants  luxury  had 
increased,  and  rendered  them  impatient  of  fatigue,  and  the 
restraint  of  legal  authority."* 

In  the  first  fundamental  constitution  of  the  Colony,  provision 
was  made  for  a  race  of  hereditary  tenants  to  have  farms  of  ten 
acres  each ;  one-eighth  of  the  produce  of  which  was  to  be  paid 
over,  as  rent,  to  the  gentlemen — lords  of  the  manor.  Two 
classes  of  hereditary  nobility  were  provided  for.  Decisions  of 
the  lords  of  the  manor,  or  of  any  of  the  nobility,  in  matters 
concerning  their  tenantry,  were  without  judicial  appeal.  No 
man  was  eligible  to  any  office,  except  he  was  the  possessor  of  a 
certain  definite  extent  of  landed  estate — larger  or  smaller, 
according  to  the  dignity  of  his  office.  Negro  slavery  was 
provided  for,  and  every  freeman  was  declared  to  have  absolute 
power,,  extending  to  life  and  death,  over  his  slaves. 

This  constitution  is  supposed  to  have  been  drafted  by  John 
Locke  ;  but  Locke's  opinion  of  negro  slavery  was  certainly  very 
inconsistent  with  any  design  to  provide  for  its  permanent  estab- 
lishment in  the  Colony.  He  describes  it,  elsewhere,  to  be 
"  the  state  of  war  continued  between  a  lawful  conqueror  and  his 
captive ;"  *  *  *  "  so  opposite  to  the  generous  temper  and 
courage  of  our  nation,  that  'tis  hardly  to  be  conceived  that  an 
Englishman,  much  less  a  gentleman,  should  plead  for  it." 

Having  the  least  democratic  government,  South  Carolina  was, 
almost  from  the  first,  distinguished  as  the  worst  governed,  most 
insubordinate,  and  most  licentious  and  immoral  of  all  the  English 
settlements  in  America.  Negroes,  from  Africa,  were  not  only 
eagerly  purchased,  but  wars  were  made  upon  the  Indians  of  the 

*  Hewitt's  History  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia.  London,  1779  ;  vol.  i., 
page  75. 


494  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

country,  for  the  purpose  of  capturing  them,  and  using  them  as 
slaves.  The  different  tribes  of  Indians  were  encouraged  to  -war 
with  one  another,  and  the  prisoners  of  each  and  all  tribes  and 
parties,  were  bought  for  slaves.  So  successfully  was  this  cat- 
and-monkey  trick  performed,  that  multitudes  of  Carolina  Indians 
were  exported,  as  slaves,  to  the  West  Indies,  where  they 
were  exchanged  for  rum,  which  thereby  became  very  cheap 
in  the  Colony,  and  made  drunkenness  very  common.  Sea- 
rovers  and  filibusters  were  openly  and  joyfully  received,  and  sup- 
plied with  every  necessity — even  with  arms  and  ammunition — 
an  exchange  for  treasure  that  had  been  taken  from  ships,  or 
plundered  towns,  on  the  Spanish  main.  Several  of  these  free- 
booters purchased  land,  and  became  resident  planters  of  the 
Colony."  Party  spirit  and  party  tyranny  were  stronger  than 
they  have  often  been,  anywhere  in  the  world ;  and  the  cavalier 
party  in  the  legislature,  although  the  constitution  guaranteed 
religious  freedom,  and  two-thirds  of  the  people  were  Dissenters, 
did  not  hesitate,  when  they  had  a  majority  of  one,  to  use  the 
opportunity  to  disfranchise  all  who  refused  to  accept  the  dog- 
mas of  their  church,' and  so  rid  themselves,  if  possible,  of  their 
opposition  forever. 

Costly  churches  were  erected,  and  clergymen  were  supported 
in  luxury,  at  the  expense  of  the  Colony.  "  The  Dissenters," 
says  Hewitt,  ';  were  not  only  obliged  to  erect  and  uphold  their 
own  churches,  and  maintain  their  clergy  by  private  contributions, 
but  also  to  contribute  their  share,  in  the  way  of  taxes,  towards 
the  maintainance  of  the  establishment.  This,  indeed,  many  of 
them  considered  a  grievance ;  but,  having  but  few  friends  in  the 

*  Hewitt,  i.,  116. 


EXPERIENCE     OF     SOUTH     CAROLINA,  495 

provincial  assembly,  no  redress  could  be  obtained  foe  them. 
Besides,  the  establishment  gave  its  adherents  many  advantageous 
privileges,  in  point  of  power  and  authority,  over  persons  of  other 
denominations."  The  English-born  of  the  Colony  were,  nearly 
all,  gradually  drawn  into  the  establishment,  by  the  worldly 
advantages  it  offered.  The  Scotch  and  Irish,  only,  steadfastly 
adhered  to  their  conviction,  and  maintained  the  Presbyterian 
organization  and  worship.* 

THE   ORIGIN   OF    "  AMERICANISM." 

The  proprietors,  having  permitted  a  band  of  French  refugees 
to  settle  in  the  Colony,  and,  for  their  encouragement,  ordered 
that  they  should  have  equal  rights  with  the  Anglo-Saxons,  the 
latter  immediately  began  to  persecute  and  oppress  them  by  every 
means  in  their  power.  "  Their  haughty  spirit  could  not  brook  the 
thoughts  of  sitting  in  assembly  with  the  rivals  of  the  English 
nation,  for  power  and  dominion."  They  maintained  that  the 
proprietors  had  no  right  to  make  low  foreigners  partakers 
of  the  privileges  of  natural-born  Englishmen;  that  their  mar- 
riages, having  been  performed  by  a  clergyman  who  had  not 
been  ordained  by  an  English  bishop,  were  unlawful,  and  their 
children  were  bastards ;  they  insisted  that  they  should  be 
allowed  no  vote ;  that  they  should  not  be  returned  on  any 
jury,  nor  sworn  for  the  trial  of  issues  between  subject  and 
subject."}- 


*  Cotemporaneously  with  the  infernal  negro-laws  of  the  Province,  the  en- 
slavement of  Indians,  and  the  public  entertainment  of  pirates,  laws  were  also 
maintained  to  regulate  the  deportment  of  the  people,  on  Sundays,  for  punishing 
those  who  used  profane  language,  etc.,  and  the  legislature  refused  to  enforce 
payment  of  debts  due  to  creditors  living  out  of  the  Province. 

t  Hewitt,  i.,  111. 


496  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

THE    EARLY    BLACK    CODE. 

The  laws  to  protect  trie  masters  against  the  slaves,  were  of  a 
severity  that  no  necessity  could  justify ;  while  there  was  scarcely 
a  semblance  of  law  to  guard  the  slaves  against  the  inhumanity 
of  the  whites.  Slaves,  endeavoring  to  flee  from  the  cruelties  to 
which  they  were  generally  subjected,*  were  permitted  to  be  shot, 
and  were  required,  when  recaptured  alive,  on  pain  of  heavy 
penalties  upon  their  owners,  to  be  mutilated  in  a  manner  too 
bad  to  mention.  If  they  died  in  consequence,  their  owners  were 
entitled  to  compensation  for  their  loss,  from  the  colonial 
treasury.  Slaves,  committing  burglary,  were  punished  by  being 
slowly  burned  to  death.f 

EARLY   LAND    MONOPOLISTS ORIGIN    OP    THE    "  SAND -KILLERS." 

About  1730,  Hewitt  says : — 

"  The  old  planters  now  acquiring,  every  year,  greater  strength  of  hands 
by  the  large  importation  of  negroes,  and  extensive  credit  in  England, 
began  to  turn  their  attention,  more  closely  than  ever,  to  the  lands  of  the 
Province  (that  is,  to  the  engrossment  of  landed  estate).  A  spirit  of 
emulation  broke  out  among  them,  for  securing  tracts  of  the  richest 
lands  of  the  Province ;  but  especially  such  as  were  most  conveniently 
situated  for  navigation." 

Complaints  were  made  to  the  legislature  that 

"  All  the  valuable  lands  on  navigable  rivers  and  creeks,  adjacent  to 
Port  Royal,  had  been  run  out  in  exorbitant  tracts,  under  color  of 
patents  granted,  by  proprietors,  to  Cassiques  and  Landgraves,  by  which 
the  complainants,  who  had,  at  the  hazard  of  their  lives,  defended  the 
country,  were  hindered  of  obtaining  such  lands  as  could  be  useful  and 
beneficial,  at  the  established  quit  rents,  although  the  Attorney  and 
Solicitor-General  of  England  had  declared  such  patents  void." 

*  Hewitt,  i.,  120;  ii.,  96.  t  Hildreth. 


EXPERIENCE     OF     SOUTH     CAROLINA.  497 

The  state  of  the  Colony,  at  the  end  of  the  year  1773,  is  thus 

described : 

"Each  planter,  eager  in  pursuit  of  large  possessions  of  land,  *  * 
strenuously  vied  with  his  neighbor  for  a  superiority  of  fortune,  and 
seemed  impatient  of  every  restraint  that  hindered  or  cramped  him  in  his 
favorite  pursuit." 

EARLY   LABOR   MONOPOLISTS. 

The  profits  of  rice  culture,  in  which  no  poor  man  could 
engage,  increased  the  ability,  without  at  all  diminishing  the 
eagerness  of  the  richer  class  to  possess  slaves.  No  regard  to 
the  general  welfare  could  restrain  the  importation. 

In  an  address  to  the  King,  about  1750,  it  is  stated :  "  The 
only  commodity  of  consequence  produced,-  is  rice."  The  "  ne- 
groes are  ready  to  revolt  on  the  first  opportunity,  and  are  eight 
times  as  many  in  number  as  there  are  white  men  able  to  bear  arms." 
"At  the  lowest  computation,"  the  export  of  rice  is  declared  to 
be  two  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  pounds  sterling  in  value, 
and  to  require  the  use  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  ships.  This 
crop  was  almost  wholly  the  produce  of  slave-labor.  Little  or  no 
result  of  the  labor  of  white  men  wras  exported,  and  the  free 
laboring  men  were  constantly  engaged  in  trying  to  preserve 
something  of  their  few  legal  rights,  from  the  rapacity  and 
ambition  of  the  rich,  slave-owning  aristocracy. 

PROGRESS. 

The  tendency  which,  during  the  last  century,  has  been  per- 
ceptible in  every  Christian  land,  and  among  all  people  intimately 
associated  with  the  civilized  world,  towards  pure  democracy, 
has,  from  time  to  time,  been  revealed  in  South  Carolina,  in 
the  gradual  modification  of  the  aristocratic  system ;  but,  even 


498  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

now,  no  man  can  be  admitted  to  a  seat  in  the  legislature 
of  the  State,  unless  he  is  the  owner  of  real  estate  to  the  value 
of,  at  least,  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  sterling ;  and,  to  be 
eligible  to  the  upper  house,  he  must  possess  a  freehold  estate 
of,  at  least,  three  hundred  pounds  value.  The  number  of 
representatives,  from  any  particular  part  of  the  State,  is  pro- 
portionate, not  to  the  number  of  citizens  residing  in  it,  but  to 
the  value  of  property  owned  in  it. 

Five-sixths  of  the  whole  white  population  of  the  State, 
residing  in  those  counties  where  there  are  the  fewest  slaves, 
have  but  seventy-eight  out  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-two 
representatives.  The  Pendleton  district,  with  over  2G,000  white 
inhabitants,  is  represented  by  seven  members ;  the  two  parishes 
of  St.  Philip  and  St.  Michael,  with  less  than  19,000  white 
inhabitants,  send  eighteen.  Nowhere  else,  in  the  United  States, 
and,  probably,  not  even  in  England,  are  elections  so  entirely 
contests  of  money  and  of  personal  influence,  and  less  expres- 
sions of  judgment,  upon  subjects  of  difference  in  politics,  as 
in  South  Carolina.  In  many  parts,  if  I  was  rightly  informed, 
no  effective  opposition  can  ever  be  offered  to  the  will  of  some 
few  of  the  "  old  families,  who  usually  have  a  good  understand- 
ing among  themselves,  who  shall  be  chosen  to  fill  any  offices 
at  all  desirable.* 

As  far  as  the  slaves  are  concerned,  there  has  been  no  es- 
sential political  progress  at  all.  The  laws  have  been  only 
slightly  modified  in  conformity  with  more  humane,  but  not  mere 

*  "  There's  Beaufort,  for  instance,"  I  was  told;  "  if  you  had  asked  any  well- 
informed  Carolinian  the  name  of  its  representatives,  at  any  time  in  the  last 

forty  years,  he  would  have  replied ;  '  It  is ,  or ,  or ,  or .'    It  is 

always  a  question  only  of  succession,  among  the  young  gentlemen  of  those  four 
families." 


EXPERIENCE     OF     SOUTH     CAROLINA.  499 

philosophical  views  of  the  modern  legislators.  And  even  as  late 
as  1808,  two  slaves  were  publicly  and  judicially  burned  alive, 
over  a  slow  fire,  in  the  city  of  Charleston.  In  1816  a  grand 
jury  declared  in  their  official  presentment,  that  instances  of 
negro  homicide  were  common,  and  that  the  murderers  were 
allowed  to  continue  in  the  full  exercise  of  their  powers  as 
masters  and  mistresses.  In  the  annual  message  of  Governor 
Adams  to  the  legislature,  this  year  (1855),  he  observes : 

"  The  administration  of  our  laws,  in  relation  to  our  colored  popula- 
tion, by  our  courts  of  magistrates  and  freeholders,  as  these  courts  are  at 
present  constituted,  calls  loudly  for  reform.  Their  decisions  are  rarely 
in  conformity  with  justice  or  humanity.  I  have  felt  constrained,  in  a  ma- 
jority of  the  cases  brought  to  my  notice,  either  to  modify  the  sentence,  or 
set  it  aside  altogether.  I  recommend,  in  all  cases  involving  life,  that  the 
trial  of  slaves  and  free  persons  of  color  be  held  at  the  court-house  of 
the  district  in  which  the  offense  is  committed  ;  that  the  clerk,  ordinary, 
and  sheriff  of  the  district,  constitute  a  court  to  try  such  cases." 

To  this  time,  whether  with  justice,  I  know  not,  South 
Carolinians  have  a  reputation  generally,  at  the  South,  not 
only  of  being  the  most  bigoted  and  fanatical  conservators  of 
Slavery,,  but  also  of  being  hard  masters  to  their  slaves.  I 
have,  several  times,  been  cautioned  by  other  Southerners, 
not  to  draw  general  conclusions  with  regard  to  the  condi- 
tion of  slaves  in  the  South  at  large,  from  what  I  saw  and 
heard  of  those  belonging  to  persons  born  in  South  Carolina. 
If  this  report  is  unjust  to  the  South  Carolinians,  I  think  it 
probably  is  not  without  foundation  in  some  truth ;  and  probably 
this :  that  the  South  Carolina  planters  have  more  faith  in  the 
Divine  right  of  masters  over  subjects  than  those  of  other  origin 
and  education,  and  consequently  are  more  determined  and 
thorough  in  the  exercise  of  despotic  power.     None  will  deny, 


600  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

at  any  rate,  that  there  is  a  difference  of  this  kind  between  South 
Carolina  planters  and  all  others,  nor  doubt  that  it  has  had 
considerable  influence  on  the  economy,  public  and  private,  of 
the  State. 

The  ruling  intellect  of  the  State  has  now,  as '  it  originally 
had,  more  than  that  of  any  other  American  community,  a 
profound  conviction,  that  God  created  men  to  live  in  distinct 
classes  or  castes,  one  beneath  another,  one  subject  to  an- 
other. As  far  as  possible,  this  ruling  intellect  tries  to  make 
practicably  reconciliable  the  social  system  of  the  State  with 
the  Constitution  of  the  Confederacy,  from  which  it  finds  it 
inconvenient  to  make  itself,  alone,  independent.  The  whole 
legislation  of  the  State  is  a  succession  of  miserable  compro- 
mises for  this  purpose.  One  year,  a  little  is  yielded  to  the 
common  people  within  the  State ;  the  next,  an  effort  is  made 
to  bully  the  General  Government  or  the  democratic  States 
into  some  retreat  from  the  Confederate  principles ;  the  next, 
circulars  are  sent  to  the  other  Slave  States,  to  coax  or  shame 
them  into  joining  South  Carolina  in  seceding  from  the  hateful 
connection  with  States  which,  purely  because  they  are  dis- 
posed to  be  consistently  democratic,  are  hated  and  despised 
by  her  rulers. 

RESULTS. 

It  is  not,  I  suppose,  to  be  questioned,  that  in  those  equalities  for 
which  a  man  is  honored  in  society — for  refinement  of  manners,  and 
the  power  of  being  agreeable  to  social  equals — the  wealth  which 
has  been  accumulated  in  a  few  hands,  from  the  long  unrequited 
labor  and  suffering  of  the  slaves  (I  speak  of  the  past,  when  no  one 
will  doubt  their  suffering),  has  given  some  few  South  Carolinians 


EXPERIENCE     OF     SOUTH     CAROLINA.  501 

a  superiority  over  most  of  the  citizens  of  the  more  democratic 
States.  One  could  beat  up  recruits  for  a  dinner-party,  or  a 
hall  room,  in  Charleston,  as  well,  at  least,  as  anywhere  else  in 
America — better  than  anywhere  at  the  North.  And  the  qualifi- 
cations for  this  purpose  are  certainly  most  desirable  ones,  and, 
where  generally  possessed,  add  more  than- profundity  of  judgment 
in  metaphysics,  or  skill  in  bargaining,  to  the  wealth  of  a  com- 
munity. It  may  be  a  question,  nevertheless,  if  they  are  not 
sometimes  acquired  at  too  great  an  expense — a.  question  of' 
social  economy. 

I  am  disposed,  from  the  pleasure  I  have  myself  received  from 
the  little  intercourse  I  by  chance  have  had  with  educated  Caro- 
linians, to  do  them  all  justice  on  this  point — a  point  on  which 
they  habitually  make  such  great  claims.  But  I  must  observe, 
also,  that  I  have  been  astonished  by  the  profound  ignorance  and 
unmitigated  stupidity  I  have  found  in  some  planters  of  the 
State,  of  considerable  wealth,  and  owning  large  numbers  of 
slaves.  There  are  notorious  anecdotes  of  wealthy  Carolinians, 
pdso,  which  show  them  to  be  sometimes  not  only  ignorant  and 
stupid,  but  quite  as  vulgar  as  the  most  ridiculous  palace- 
builders  in  New  York.  Nevertheless,  let  us  believe  that  there 
is  less  vulgar  display,  and  more  intrinsic  elegance,  and  habitual 
mental  refinement  in  the  best  society  of  South  Carolina,  than 
in  any  distinct  class  anywhere  among  us.  This  is  to  be  ex- 
pected from  their  social  system. 

Leisure,  and  bountiful  provision  for  the  future  being  secured, 
it  is  also  almost  a  matter  of  course,  that  men  will  amuse  them- 
selves with  literature,  arts  and  science.  South  Carolina  has, 
therefore,  always  boasted  several  men  of  learning  (men  learned 
in   the    classics,   and   abstract  science),    and   many  belle-lettre 


502  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

scholars.  Yet  scarce  anything  has  been  accomplished  by  them 
for  the  advancement  of  learning  and  science,  and  there  have  been 
fewer  valuable  inventions  and  discoveries,  or  designs  in  art,  or 
literary  compositions  of  a  high  rank,  or  anything  else,  contrived 
or  executed  for  the  good  of  the  whole  community,  or  the  world 
at  large  (cotton  and  rice-growing  excepted),  in  South  Carolina, 
than  in  any  community  of  equal  numbers  and  wealth,  probably 
in  the  world.  What  Hewitt  said  of  the  wealthy  class,  previous 
to  the  Revolution,  is  still  remarkably  true  of  it : 

"  In  the  progress  of  society,  they  have  not  advanced  beyond  that  period 
in  which  men  are  distinguished  more  by  their  external  than  internal 
accomplishments.  Hence  it  happens,  that  beauty,  figure,  agility,  and 
strength  form  the  principal  distinctions  among  them.  Among  English 
people,  they  are  chiefly  known  by  the  number  of  their  slaves,  the  value 
of  their  annual  produce,  or  the  extent  of  their  landed  estate.  They  dis- 
cover no  bad  taste  for  the  polite  arts,  such  as  music,  drawing,  fencing, 
and  dancing.  And  it  is  acknowledged  by  all,  but  especially  by  strangers, 
that  the  ladies  considerably  outshine  the  men.  Several  natives,  who 
have  had  their  education  in  Britain,  have  distinguished  themselves  by 
their  knowledge  in  the  laws  and  constitution  of  their  country  ;  but  those 
who  have  been  bred  in  the  province,  having  their  ideas  confined  in  a 
narrower  sphere,  have,  as  yet,  made  little  figure  as  men  of  genius  or 
learning."* 

Such  were  and  are  the  few  rich.     What  of  the  many  poor? 

THE  FREE  LABORING  CLASS  AT  THE  REVOLUTION. 

In  an  account  of  an  interview,  given  by  a  South  Carolina 
gentleman,  between  General  Marion,  himself,  and  the  Baron  de 
Kalb,  during  the  Revolutionary  war,  the  following  conversation 
is  reported : 

"  He  received  us  politely,  observing  that  we  were  the  first  Carolinians 

*  Calhoun  was  educated  in  Connecticut,  and  he  was  the  son  of  n  poor  Irishman, 


EXPERIENCE     OF     SOUTH     CAROLINA.  503 

that  he  had  seen,  which  had  not  a  little  surprised  him.  *  *  *  'I 
thought,'  said  he,  '  that  British  tyranny  would  have  sent  great  numbers 
of  the  South  Carolinians  to  join  our  arms ;  but  so  far  from  it,  they  are 
all,  as  we  are  told,  running  to  take  British  protections ;  surely,  they  are 
not  tired  already  of  fighting  for  liberty.' 

"  We  told  him  the  reason  was  very  plain  to  us,  who  were  inhabitants 
of  that  country,  and  knew  very  well  the  state  of  things  there. 

"  '  Aye  ?'  said  he  ;  '  well,  what  can  the  reason  be  V 

" '  Why,  sir,'  said  Marion,  '  the  people  of  Carolina  form  two  classes, 
the  rich  and  the  poor.  The  poor  are  generally  very  poor,  because,  not 
being  necessary  to  the  rich,  who  have  slaves  to  do  all  their  work,  they 
get  no  employment  of  them.  Being  thus  unsupported  by  the  rich,  they 
continue  poor  and  low  spirited.  They  seldom  get  money  ;  and,  indeed, 
what  little  they  do  get.  is  laid  out  in  brandy,  to  raise  their  spirits,  and 
not  on  books  and  newspapers,  to  get  information.  Hence,  they  know 
nothing  of  the  comparative  blessings  of  our  country,  or  of  the  dangers 
which  threaten  it,  and  therefore  care  nothing  about  it.*  As  to  the 
other  class  (continued  Marion),  the  rich,  they  are  generally  very  rich, 
and,  consequently,  afraid  to  stir  unless  a  fair  chance  offer,  lest  the 
British  should  burn  their  houses  and  furniture,  and  carry  off  their 
negroes  and  stock.'  "f 

And  on  another  occasion,  near  the  close  of  his  life,  Marion  is 

reported  to  have  discoursed  as  follows  : 

"  What,  sig !  keep  a  nation  in  ignorance,  rather  than  vote  a  little  of 

*  It  is  a  fact,  I  believe,  that  the  British  recruited  more  men,  during  the  war, 
in  South  Carolina,  than  were  ever  induced  to  take  up  arms  against  them.  The 
Tories  of  the  North  were  generally  men  of  wealth,  and  the  patriots  were  the 
common  people.  In  Carolina,  it  was  the  reverse.  The  great  mass  of  the  people 
were  perfectly  indifferent,  and  took  sides  with  the  party  that  offered  them 
the  best  pay.  Even  the  patriotism  of  the  planters  could,  in  many  cases,  be 
ascribed  to  the  fact  that  the  Revolution  relieved  them  of  their  liabilities  to  their 
creditors,  most  of  them  being  excessively  in  debt  to  their  English  factors.  It 
was  not  until  an  express  exception  from  the  non-exportation  clause  of  the 
"  American  Association,"  of  the  article  of  rice,  had  been  made  for  her  special 
benefit,  that  the  Colony  was  induced  to  join  the  others  in  the  agreement  of  com- 
mercial non-intercourse  with  Great  Britain,  which  preceded  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution. 

t  The  Life  of  General  Francis  Marion,  by  Brig.  Gen.  P.  Horrey,  of  Marion's 
Brigade,  and  M.  L.  Weems. 


504  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

their  own  money  for  education  ?  Only  let  such  politicians  remember 
what  poor  Carolina  has  already  lost  through  her  ignorance.  What  was 
it  brought  the  British,  last  war,  to  Carolina,  but  her  lack  of  knowledge? 
Ilad  the  people  been  enlightened,  they  would  have  been  united ;  and 
had  they  been  united,  they  would  never  have  been  attacked  a  second 
time  by  the  British.  For,  after  the  drubbing  they  got  from  us  at  Fort 
Moultrie,  in  1776,  they  would  have  as  soon  attacked  the  devil  as  have 
attacked  Carolina  again,  had  they  not  heard  that  they  were  '  a  house 
divided  against  itself — or,  in  other  words,  had  amongst  us  a  great 
number  of  Tories,  men  who  through  mere  ignorance  were  disaffected  to 
the  cause  of  liberty,  and  ready  to  join  the  British,  against  their  own 
countrymen.  Thus,  ignorance  begat  toryism,  and  toryism  begat  losses 
in  Carolina,  of  which  few  have  any  idea." 

He  then  goes  on  to  show  that,  owing  to  the  foothold  the  Brit- 
ish gained  in  Carolina,  the  war  was  protracted,  two  years  ;  and 
makes  a  curious  estimate  of  the  loss  to  Carolina  in  those  two 
years,  at  $15,100,000.  "As  a  proof,"  he  continues,  "that  such 
hellish  tragedies  would  never  have  been  acted,  had  our  State 
been  enlightened,  only  let  us  look  at  the  people  of  New 
England :  Eeligion  had  taught  them  that  God  created  men  to 
be  happy ;  that,  to  be  happy,  they  must  have  virtue  ;  that  virtue 
is  not  to  be  attained  without  knowledge ;  nor  knowledge  without 
instruction ;  nor  public  instruction  without  free  schools ;  nor 
free  schools  without  legislative  order." 

PRESENT    CONDITION    OF    THE   FREE    LABORING    CLASS. 

Since  the  Eevolution,  the  effects  of  the  republican  general 
government,  and  the  influence  of  the  democratic  societies  of  the 
North,  have  certainly  forced  some  improvement  upon  the  State ; 
but  how  slowly  these  counteract  the  results  of  its  ruling,  interior, 
social  and  political  polity,  may  be  judged  from  the  following 
extract  from  a  recent  message  of  Governor  Seabrook,  to  the 
Legislature  : 


EXPERIENCE     OF     SOUTH     CAROLINA.  505 

"  Education  has  been  pi*ovided  by  the  Legislature,  but  for  one  class 
of  the  citizens  of  the  State,  which  is  the  wealthy  class.  For  the  middle 
and  poorer  classes  of  society  it  has  done  nothing,  since  no  organized  sys- 
tem has  been  adopted  for  that  purpose.  You  have  appropriated  seventy- 
five  thousand  dollars  annually  to  free  schools  ;  but,  under  the  present 
mode  of  applying  it,  that  liberality  is  really  the  profusion  of  the  prodi- 
gal, rather  than  the  judicious  generosity  which  confers  real  benefit.  The 
few  who  are  educated  at  public  expense  in  those  excellent  and  truly 
useful  institutions,  the  Arsenal  and  Citadel  Academies  [military  schools], 
form  almost  the  only  exception  to  the  truth  of  this  remark.  Ten  years 
ago,  twenty  thousand  adults,  besides  children,  were  unable  to  read  or 
write,  in  South  Carolina.  Has  our  free-school  system  dispelled  any  of 
this  ignorance  ?  Are  there  not  any  reasonable  fears  to  be  entertained 
that  the  number  has  increased  since  that  period  ?" 

And  in  the  message  of  Gov.  Adams,  December,  1855,  urging  the 
appointment  of  a  State  Superintendent  of  Education,  he  says  : 

"  Make,  at  least,  this  effort,  and  if  it  results  in  nothing — if,  in  conse- 
quence of  insurmountable  difficulties  in  our  condition,  no  improvement 
can  be  made  on  the  present  system,  and  the  poor  of  the  land  are  hope- 
lessly doomed  to  ignorance,  poverty,  and  crime — you  will,  at  least,  feel 
conscious  of  having  done  your  duty,  and  the  public  anxiety  on  the  sub- 
ject will  be  quieted." 

A  Southern-born  gentleman,  who  had  resided  in  South  Caro- 
lina during  many  years,  and  who  has  lately  been  a  traveler  in 
Spanish  America,  in  expressing  to  me  his  doubts  of  the  utter 
degeneracy,  as  commonly  understood,  of  the  Spanish  and  His- 
pano-Indian  races,  and  his  conviction  of  their  many  good 
qualities  and  capabilities,  said,  that  he  had  seen,  among  the 
worst  of  them,  and  those  who  had  been  most  unfavorably  cir- 
cumstanced, none  so  entirely  debased,  so  wanting  in  all  energy, 
industry,  purpose  of  life,  and  in  everything  to  be  respected  and 
valued,  as  among  extensive  communities  on  the  banks  of  the 

Oongaree,  in  South  Carolina.     The  latter,  he  said,  in  answer  to 
22 


-506  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

my  inquiries,  "  are  the  descendants  of  the  former  proprietors  of 
nearly  all  the  land  of  the  region ;  but,  for  generations,  their 
fathers  have  been  gradually  selling  off  to  the  richer  planters 
moving  in  among  them,  and  living  on  the  purchase  money  of 
their  lands,  and  their  children  have  been  brought  up  in  listless, 
aimless,  and  idle  independence,  more  destructive  to  them,  as  a 
race,  than  even  forced  and  servile  industry  might  have  been. 
They  are  more  ignorant,  their  superstitions  are  more  degrading, 
they  are  much  less  enduring  and  industrious,  far  less  cheerful 
and  animated,  and  very  much  more  incapable  of  being  improved 
and  elevated,  than  the  most  degraded  peons  of  Mexico.  Their 
chief  sustenance  is  a  porridge  of  cow-peas,  and  the  greatest 
luxury  with  which  they  are  acquainted  is  a  stew  of  bacon  and 
peas,  with  red  pepper,  which  they  call  '  Hopping  John.'  " 

Let  the  reader  recall  to  mind  Hewitt's  description  of  the 
knavery  exercised  by  the  early  gentlemen  of  the  Colony,  in  the 
mad  passion  to  acquire  large  landed  estates,  and  consider  that 
these  are  their  children,  and  he  will  see  the  repetition  of  the 
Virginia  lesson,  and  the  words  again  verified — "  visiting  the 
sins  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children,  unto  the  third  and  fourth 
generation." 

THE    SAND-HILLERS. 

Not  very  essentially  different  is  the  condition  of  a  class 
of  people  living  in  the  pine-barrens  nearest  the  coast,  as 
described  to  me  by  a  rice-planter.  They  seldom  have  any  meat, 
he  said,  except  they  steal  hogs,  which  belong  to  the  planters, 
or  their  negroes,  and  their  chief  diet  is  rice  and  milk.  "  They 
are  small,  gaunt,  and  cadaverous,  and  their  skin  is  jus>t  the 
color  of  the  sand-hills  they  live  on.     They  are  quite  incapable 


EXPERIENCE     OF     SOUTH     CAROLINA.  507 

of  applying  themselves  steadily  to   any  labor,  and  their  habits 
are  very  much  like  those  of  the  old  Indians." 

A  Northern  gentleman,  who  had  been  spending  a  year  in  South 
Carolina,  said  to  me,  after  speaking  respectfully  of  the  char- 
acter of  some  of  the  wealthier  class,  "  but  the  poor  whites,  out 
in  the  country,  are  the  meanest  people  I  ever  saw  :  half  of  them 
would  be  considered  objects  of  charity  in  New  York.     When  I 

was  at Springs,  in  the  summer,  I  took  too  long  a  walk  one 

day,  and  stopped  at  a  miserable  shanty  to  rest  myself.  There 
were  four  grown-up  girls  in  the  shanty  :  one  of  them  was  weav- 
ing, and  the  rest  did  not  seem  to  have  anything  to  do.  I  found 
their  father  was  a  blacksmith,  who  had  been  working  at  his 
trade  in  the  neighborhood  for  forty  years :  all  that  time  he  had 
lived  in  that  hovel,  and  was  evidently  still  in  abject  poverty.  I 
asked  the  girl  at  the  loom  how  much  she  could  make  a  day  by 
her  work.  She  did  not  know,  but  I  ascertained  that  the  stuff 
she  wove  was  bought  at  a  factory  in  the  vicinity,  to  be  used  for 
bagging  yarn ;  and  she  was  paid  in  yarn — so  many  pounds  of 
yarn  for  a  piece  of  the  bagging.  She  traded  off  the  yarn  at  a 
store  for  what  she  had  to  buy,  at  the  rate  of  a  dollar  and  ten 
cents  for  this  number  of  pounds  of  it.  If  she  worked  steadily 
from  daylight  to  dark  she  could  make  not  more  than  a  seventh 
part  of  a  piece  in  a  day.  Her  wages,  therefore,  were  less  than 
sixteen  cents  a  day,  boarding  herself." 

"  These  people,"  he  continued,  "  are  regarded  by  the  better 
class  with  as  little  respect  as  the  slaves;  and,  in  fact,  they  have 
hardly  more  self-respect.  One  day,  when  I  was  riding  out  with 
a  gentleman,  we  passed  a  house,  at  the  door  of  which  an  old 
man  and  four  rather  good-looking  girls  made  their  appearance. 
The  gentleman  told  me  that  two  of  the  girls  were  notorious  har- 


508  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

lots,  and  that  their  father  was  understood  not  to  object  to  their 
bearing  that  character." 

He  added  further  evidence  of  a  similar  character,  indicating 
that  a  very  slight  value  is  placed  upon  female  virtue  among  this 
class.  A  Southern  physician  expressed  the  opinion  to  me  that 
if  an  accurate  record  could  be  had  of  the  births  of  illegitimate 
children,  as  in  Sweden  and  France,  it  would  be  found  to  be  as 
great,  among  the  poor  people  in  the  part  of  the  country  in 
which  he  practiced,  as  of  those  born  in  wedlock.  A  planter 
told  me  that  any  white  girl  who  could  be  hired  to  work  for 
wages  would  certainly  be  a  girl  of  easy  virtue  ;  and  he  would  not 
believe  that  such  was  not  the  case  with  all  our  female  domestics 
at  the  north.  The  northern  gentleman  who  related  to  me  the 
facts  repeated  on  the  last  page,  told  me  he  was  convinced  that 
real  chastity  among  the  young  women  of  the  non-slaveholding 
class  in  South  Carolina  was  as  rare  as  the  want  of  it  among 
farmers'  daughters  at  the  north.  I  can  only  say,  in  the  absence 
of  reliable  data  upon  the  subject,  that  the  difference  in  the  man- 
ners and  conversation  and  general  demeanor  of  the  two  is  not 
unfavorable  to  this  conclusion. 

I  am  not  unaware  that  it  is  often  asserted,  as  an  advantage  of 
slavery  (in  the  elaborate  defense  of  the  institution  by  Chancellor 
Harper,  for  instance),  that  the  ease  with  which  the  passions  of 
men  of  the  superior  caste  are  gratified  by  the  loose  morality,  or 
inability  to  resist,  of  female  slaves,  is  a  security  of  the  chastity 
of  the  white  women.  I  can  only  explain  this,  consistently  with 
my  impression  of  the  actual  state  of  things,  by  supposing  that 
these  writers  ignore  entirely,  as  it  is  a  constant  custom  for 
Southern  writers  to  do,  the  condition  of  the  poorer  class  of  the 
white  population.     (Witness,  for  instance,  Mrs.  Tyler's  letter  to 


EXPERIENCE  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.    509 

the  Duchess  of  Sutherland.)  Chancellor  Harper  says :  "  It  is 
related  rather  as  a  matter  of  tradition,  not  unminglecl  with  won- 
der, that  a  Carolinian  woman  of  education  and  family  proved 
false  to  her  conjugal  faith."  And  it  is,  I  presume,  to  women  of 
education  and  "  family"  alone  that  he  referred,  in  claiming  an 
especial  glory  to  the  South  in  this  particular.  In  any  case, 
the  claim  is  unfounded  of  a  higher  character,  in  this  respect, 
than  belongs  to  women  favorably  situated  in  the  free  states, 
though  those  of  the  south  are  unexcelled  in  the  world  for  every 
quality  which  commands  respect,  admiration  and  love. 

In  speaking  of  the  severity  of  the  laws  with  regard  to  free 
negroes  at  the  south,  a  Southerner  remarked  :  "  It  is  impossible 
that  we  should  not  always  have  a  class  of  free  colored  people, 
because  of  the  fundamental  law,  partus  sequiter  ventrem.  There 
must  always  be  women  among  the  lower  class  of  whites,  so  poor 
that  their  favors  can  be  purchased  by  the  slaves,  and  the  off- 
spring must  be  constitutionally  entitled  to  freedom ;  and  al- 
though it  may  be  kidnapped,  or  illegally  sold  into  slavery  by  the 
mother,  it  cannot  be  enacted  that  all  persons  of  color  shall  be, 
considered  ipse  facto,  slaves." 

The  Richmond  Enquirer,  of  the  12th  June,  1855,  gives  an 
account  of  a  case  decided  in  the  Botecourt  Circuit  Court,  as 
follows : 

"  Eliza  Crawford,  and  five  children,  colored,  suing  for  thf.tr 
Freedom. — The  case  was  decided  in  favor  of  the  plaintiffs,  the  evidence 
being  full  and  complete  that  the  chief  plaintiff,  Eliza,  was  born  of  a 
white  womau,  of  Georgia.  She  is  now  about  thirty-five  years  of  age, 
and  has  been  in  slavery  between  fifteen  and  twenty  years." 

The  reports  of  the  agents  employed  by  religious  asso- 
ciations to  travel  among  the  poor  of  South  Carolina,  indicate, 


510  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

strongly,  a  state  of  ignorance  and  superstition  in  the  population 
of  large  districts,  hardly  exceeded  in  Mexico,  and  unparalleled, 
so  far  as  I  know,  in  civilized  Europe.  The  log-book  of  a  col- 
porteur yields,  for  instance,  the  following  statistical  results  of 
a  few  days'  observations  in  his  cruising-ground  : 

"  Visited  sixty  families,  numbering  two  hundred  and  twenty-one 
souls  over  ten  years  of  age ;  only  twenty-three  could  read,  and  seven- 
teen write.  Forty-one  families  destitute  of  the  Bible.  Average  of 
their  going  to  church,  once  in  seven  years.  Several,  between  thirty  and 
forty-five  years  old,  had  heard  but  one  or  two  sermons  in  their  lives. 
Some  grown-up  youths  had  never  heard  a  sermon  or  prayer,  until  my 
visit,  and  did  not  know  of  such  a'  being  as  the  Saviour ;  and  boys  and 
girls,  from  ten  to  fifteen  years  old,  did  not  know  who  made  them.  All 
of  one  family  rushed  away,  when  I  knelt  to  pray,  to  a  neighbor's,  beg- 
ging them  to  tell  what  I  meant  by  it.  Other  families  fell  on  their  faces, 
instead  of  kneeling."* 

The  slave-labor  of  the  State  is  almost  exclusively  devoted  to 
the  culture  of  cotton  and  rice.  Live  stock,  meat,  corn,  bread- 
stuffs,  and  forage — though  the  soil  and  climate  of  a  large  part 
are  entirely  favorable  to  their  production — are  very  largely  im- 
ported ;  and,  for  nearly  all  sorts  of  skillfully  manufactured 
goods,  the  people  are  quite  dependent  on  the  Free  States. 
Trade,  and  skilled  labor  of  all  sorts,  is  mainly  in  the  hands  of 
persons  from  the  Free  States,  or  foreign  countries,  and  the 
population  of  this  class  is  rapidly  increasing.  Previous  to  an 
election  for  a  sheriff,  in  Charleston,  in  1855,  two  hundred  and 
fifty-two  foreigners  were  naturalized  in  five  days.     The  pecu- 


*  Any  amount  of  similar  testimony  may  be  obtained  at  the  offices  of  those 
noble  institutions,  the  Southern  Aid  Society  and  the  American  Tract  Society, 
in  New  York.  It  is  curious  how  little  complaint  is  made  of  the  impertinence  of 
these  Northern  societies :  why  are  not  theif  agents  sent  back,  in  tar  and  feathers, 
to  "  take  care  of  their  own  vicious  and  wretched  poor  ?" 


EXPERIENCE     OF     SOUTH    CAROLINA.  511 

niary  inducements  to  emigration  may  be  judged  from  the  fol- 
lowing facts : 

"  Lands,  with  heavy  timber  upon  them,  are  selling,  within  twenty 
miles  of  Charleston,  for  prices  varying  from  one  to  five  dollars  an  acre- 
Wood  is  selling  at  six  dollars  and  a  half  a  cord,  by  the  boat-load, 
delivered  at  the  wharf ;  and  at  seven  dollars  and  a  half  by  the  wood- 
factors,  in  the  city.  Masts  and  spars  are  brought  from  Boston.  Brick, 
made  from  clay,  which  costs  nothing,  is  worth  twelve  dollars  a  thou- 
sand."* 

I  lately  saw  it  stated  in  a  Charleston  paper,  that  the  most 
prosperous  community  in  the  State  was  one  composed  exclu- 
sively of  Germans,  in  the  hill  country  of  the  West.  The 
observation  was  apropos  to  the  foundation  among  them  of  an 
educational  institution,  of  a  high  order ;  and  it  appeared  that 
they  had  considerable  manufactories  in  successful  operation,  and 
were  succeeding  so  well,  in  farming  and  other  industry — un- 
doubtedly free  laboring — as  to  have  capital  to  spare  to  aid  a 
rail-road  enterprise. 

The  estimatiQn  in  which  the  foreign-born  working-people  are 
held  by  the  enlightened  natives,  may  be  judged  from  the  follow- 
ing extract  from  a  South  Carolina  newspaper,!  which  also  gives 
a  hint  of  the  predominant  feeling  among  the  capitalists  towards 
that  class  of  the  poor  natives  who  bring  their  own  industry  in 
competition  with  that  of  the  slaves. 

"  A  large  proportion  of  the  mechanical  force  that  migrate  to  the 
South,  are  a  curse  instead  of  a  blessing  ;  they  are  generally  a  worthless, 
unprincipled  class — enemies  to  our  peculiar  institutions,  and  formidable 


*  Charleston  Standard,  1855,  in  advocacy  of  reopening  the  African  Slave- 
trade. 

t  The  Carolinian,  I  think. ;  but,  in  cutting  it  out,  I  omitted  to  note  the  au- 
thority and  date. 


512  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

barriers  to  the  success  of  our  native  mechanics.  Not  so,  however,  with 
another  class  who  migrate  southward — we  mean  that  class  known  as 
merchants  ;  they  are  generally  intelligent  and  trustworthy,  and  they 
seldom  fail  to  discover  their  true  interests.  They  become  slaveholders 
and  landed  proprietors  ;  and,  in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a  hundred,  they 
are  better  qualified  to  become  constituents  of  our  institution,  than  even 
a  certain  class  of  our  native-born — who,  from  want  of  capacity,  are 
perfect  drones  in  society,  continually  carping  about  slave  competition 
and  their  inability  to  acquire  respectable  position  and  employment, 
when,  in  fact,  their  natural  acquirements  and  ambition  do  not  excel 
the  wisdom  of  the  mole — they  never  look  beyond  the  point  of  their  nose, 
or  aspire  to  anything  beyond  the  capacity  of  a  drudge  in  society.  *  * 
"  The  intelligent  mercantile  class,  who  come  among  us  from  the 
North,  and  settle,  are  generally  valuable  acquisitions  to  society,  and 
every  way  qualified  to  sustain  '  our  institution  ;'  but  the  mechanics, 
most  of  them,  are  pests  to  society,  dangerous  among  the  slave  popula- 
tion, and  ever  ready  to  form  combinations  against  the  interest  of  the 
slaveholder,  against  the  laws  of  the  country,  and  against  the  peace  of 
the  Commonwealth." 

This  must  refer  to  some  movements,  which  have  lately  been 
made,  for  enlarging  the  basis  of  suffrage,  and.  for  permitting  the 
people  to  vote  directly  for  Presidential  electors.  __  South  Carolina 
stands  alone  among  all  the  States  in  this,  that  the  Presiden- 
tial electors  are  chosen  by  the  legislature.  No  native  even 
can  exceed,  in  idolatry  to  Slavery,  the  mass  of  the  ignorant 
foreign-born  laborers.  Their  hatred  of  the  negro  is  propor- 
tionate to  the  equality  of  -  their  intellect  and  character  to 
his :  and  their  regard  for  Slavery,  to  their  disinclination  to 
compete  with  him,  in  a  fair  field. 

The  Census  Keport,  which  should  be  the  best  authority  in  the 
matter,  is  evidently  more  than  ordinarily  unreliable,  as  an  index 
to  the  average  material  wealth  of  the  people  of  this  State.  There 
is  every  reason  to  suppose  that  the  condition  of  the  poorest  of 
the  people  was  often  left  unascertained,  generally,  in  the  Slave 


EXPERIENCE     OF     SOUTH     CAROLINA.  513 

States — the  vagabond  habits  of  many  of  them  keeping  them  out 
of  the  reach  of  the  marshals  ;  also,  I  am  sure,  from  what  I 
have  heard,  that  the  marshals  were  generally  excessively  lazy, 
and  neglectful  of  their  duty,  among  that  class  which  was  most 
ignorant,  or  indifferent  on  the  subject.* 

By  the  returns  of  the  South  Carolina  marshals,  the  cash 
value  of  land,  in  the  State,  appears  to  be  $5-08  an  acre  ;  by  the 
legislative  documents  of  the  State,  for  the  same  year,  the  cash 
value  of  real  estate,  exclusive  of  town  lots,  appears  to  be  but 
sixty  cents  an  acre.  (The  value  of  land  is  given  in  the  several 
counties,  and  foots  up,  in  the  one  case,  $10,082,427,  and 
$82,431,684  in  the  other;  so  it  can  be  no  typographical  error.) 
The  marshals  were  directed  to  make  out  their  returns  from  the 
assessment  rolls,  and,  where  the  assessments  were  made  on  sums 
less  than  the  intrinsic  value  of  the  land,  to  add  the  necessary 
per  centage.  The  average  addition  made,  under  this  provision, 
by  the  South  Carolina  marshals,  is  over  800  per  cent. ;  while,  at 
page  46  of  the  official  Abstract  of  the  Census,  the  difference 
between  the  real  and  assessed  value  of  real  and  personal  estate, 
in  South  Carolina,  is  shown  to  be  but  one-seventieth  of  one 
per  cent. 

Attention  was  called  to  these  discrepancies,  immediately  after 
the  publication  of  the  document,  by  a  writer  in  the  National 
Era,  at  Washington — but  no  explanation  has  ever  been  made  ; 
and,  until  one  is  offered,  either  the  honesty  or  the  competency 
of   the    South    Carolina   marshals    must   be  so    doubtful,    that 

*  I  have  seen  an  advertisement  of  a  deputy  Census  marshal,  in  Alabama  or 

Georgia,  announcing  that  he  would  be  at  a  certain  tavern  in  his  district,  on  a 

certain  day,  for  the  purpose  of  receiving  from  the  people  of  the  vicinity — 

#  who  were  requested  to  call  upon  him — the  information  it  was  his  duty  to  obtain 

from  them. 

22* 


514  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

it  is  hardly   worth  while  to  particularly  study  their  other  re- 
turns. 

In  looking  for  other  reliahle  data  for  an  estimate  of  happiness 
which  South  Carolina  statesmanship  had  secured  at  home,  for 
the  mass  of  that  part  of  its  people  not  systematically  and 
with  avowed  intention  held  in  subjection  and  degradation, 
I  find,  in  an  address  of  another  chief  magistrate  of  the  State 
(Governor  Hammond)  before  the  South  Carolina  Institute,  the 
following  exposition : 

"  According  to  the  best  calculations  which,  in  the  absence  of  statistic 
facts,  can  be  made,  it  is  believed  that,  of  the  300,000  white  inhabitants 
of  South  Carolina,  there  are  not  less  than  50,000,  whose  industry,  such 
as  it  is,  and  compensated  as  it-  is,  is  not,  in  the  present  condition  of 
things,  and  does  not  promise,  hereafter,  to  be,  adequate  to  procure  them, 
honestly,  such  a  support  as  every  wThite  person  in  this  country  is  and 
feels  himself  entitled  to." 

"  Some  cannot  be  said  to  work  at  all.  They  obtain  a  precarious 
subsistence  by  occasional  jobs,  by  hunting,  by  fishing,  sometimes  by 
plundering  fields  or  folds,  and,  too  often,  by  what  is,  in  its  effects,  far 
worse — trading  with  slaves,  and  seducing  them  to  plunder  for  their 
benefit." 

In  another  part  of  the  same  address,  Gov.  Hammond  says, 
that  "$18  or,  at  the  most,  $19  will  cover  the  whole  necessary 
annual  cost  of  a  full  supply  of  wholesome  and  palatable  food, 
purchased  in  the  market ;"  meaning,  generally,  in  South  Carolina. 
From  a  comparison  of  these  two-  extracts,  it  will  be  evident  that 
$19  per  annum  is  high  wages  for  the  labor  of  one-sixth  of  all 
the  white  population  of  South  Carolina — and  that  one-sixth 
exclusive  of  the  classes  not  obliged  to  labor  for  their  living. 

Mr.  Bancroft  says,  in  his  Essay  on  the  Decline  of  the  Eoman 
People : 

"  When   Tiberius    Sempronius    Gracchus,   on   his   way  to    Spain,  * 


EXPERIENCE     OF     SOUTH     CAROLINA.  515 

to  serve  in  the  army  before  Numantia,  traveled  through  Italy,  he  was 
led  to  observe  the  impoverishment  of  the  great  body  of  citizens  in  the 
rural  districts.  Instead  of  little  farms,  studding  the  country  with  their 
pleasant  aspect,  and  nursing  an  independent  race,  he  beheld  nearly  all 
the  lands  of  Italy  engrossed  by  large  proprietors  ;  and  the  plow  was  in 
the  hands  of  the  slave.  In  the  early  periods  of  the  State,  Cincinnatus, 
at  work  in  his  field,  was  the  model  of  patriotism  ;  agriculture  and  war 
had  been  the  labor  and  office  of  freemen  ;  but  of  these  the  greater  num- 
ber had  now  been  excluded  from  employment  by  the  increase  of  slavery, 
and  its  tendency  to  confer  the  exclusive  possession  of  the  soil  on  the 
few.  The  palaces  of  the  wealthy  towered  in  the  landscape  in  solitary 
grandeur  ;  the  plebeians  hid  themselves  in  miserable  hovels.  Deprived  of 
the  dignity  of  freeholders,  they  could  not  even  hope  for  occupation  ;  for 
the  opulent  land-owner  preferred  rather  to  make  use  of  his  slaves,  whom 
he  could  not  but  maintain,  and  who  constituted  his  family.  Excepting 
the  small  number  of  the  immeasurably  rich,  and  a  feeble,  but  constantly 
decreasing  class  of  independent  husbandmen,  poverty  was  extreme.7' 

No  observant  traveler  can  pass  through  South  Carolina,  and 
extend  his  observation  beyond  the  illumined  ground  of  hospi- 
tality, and  not  perceive  a  state  of  things  similar  to  that  here 
described.  The  slaveholders  have,  as  far  as  possible  with  their 
capital,  secured  the  best  circumstances  for  the  employment  of 
that  slave-labor  which  is  the  most  valuable  part  of  their  capital. 
They  need  no  assistance  from  the  poor  white  man :  his  presence 
near  them  is  disagreeable  and  unprofitable.  Condemned  to  the 
poorest  land,  and  restricted  to  the  labor  of  merely  providing 
for  themselves  the  simple  necessities  of  life,  they  are  equally 
indifferent  and  incompetent  to  materially  improve  their  minds  or 
their  wealth. 

Few  will  wish  to  ask  whether  the  condition  of  the  non-slave- 
holders is  compensated  by  the  progress  of  knowledge  and  the 
abundance  of  happiness  among  the  slaveholders.  This  is  impos- 
sible, considering  the   relative  numbers    of  each.     But  it  will 


516  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

be  interesting  to  see  how  this  distinct  separation  of  classes,  into 
the  ignorant  and  the  cultivated,  is  opposed  to  an  economical 
direction  of  the  forced  labor  of  the  slaves,  leads,  everywhere,  to 
improvidence  and  waste  in  the  use  of  the  natural  resources  of 
the  country,  and  prevents  a  rapid  increase  of  wealth,  even  among 
the  opulent  and  educated. 

A  man  finding  himself  chiefly  distinguished  from  a  class 
despised  of  his  comrades,  by  his  superior  intellectual  cultivation, 
naturally  cultivates  his  intellect  farther  in  those  directions  which 
wealth  gives  him  a  monopoly  of  pursuing,  in  preference  to  those 
in  which  he  must  advance  on  equal  terms  with  the  poor.  The 
greater  the  class  distinctions,  the  more  general  will  be  the  habit 
of  lazy  contemplation  and  reflection — of  dilettanteism — and  the 
less  that  of  practical  industry  and  the  capacity  for  laborious 
personal  observation  and  invention.  The  South  Carolina  gentle- 
man is  ambitious  to  generalize,  either  in  war,  or  in  politics,  or  in 
society ;  but  to  closely  superintend  and  carry  out  his  own  plans, 
is  excessively  irksome  and  difficult  for  him.  Consequently  he 
is  obliged  to  depend  upon  uncultivated,  ignorant,  and  immoral 
poor  men.     What  is  the  result  on  his  plantations  ? 

"  No  improvements  can  be  effected — no  ameliorations,  either  of 
negroes  or  land,  can  be  expected,  if  overseers  are  invested  with  the 
chief  authority,  and  changed  every  two  years.  Each  one  has  his 
peculiarities  in  managing  affairs ;  plants  differently,  works  differently, 
establishes  different  rules  for  the  government  of  negroes,  wants 
other  implements,  and  has  different  views  about  feeding  working-ani- 
mals and  rearing  stock — -while  none  of  them  feel,  or  can  be  expected 
to  feel,  any  permanent  interest  in  their  employers'  concerns.  Unless, 
therefore,  the  latter  establishes  a  system  of  his  own,  rigidly  adheres  to 
it,  and  compels  all  his  overseers  to  conform  to  it,  it  is  obvious  that 
everything  must  be,  and  continue,  at  sixes  and  sevens,  with  a  total  or 
partial  revolution  every  one,  two,  or  four  years.  It  is  not  enough,  that 
he  should  exercise  a  sort  of  general  superintendence.     That  may  save 


EXPERIENCE     OF     SOUTH     CAROLINA.  517 

him  from  speed  7  ruin,  and,  perhaps,  even  enable  him  to  get  along 
tolerably  well ;  but,  if  he  desires  really  to  improve,  he  must  descend  to 
particulars,  and  infuse  into  every  plantation  operation  the  spirit  of  an 
intelligent  guardian  of  a  permanent  interest. 

"  How  much  better,  then,  would  everything  be  conducted,  if  the 
planter  himself  took  upon  him  the  steady,  uniform,  and  entire  direction 
of  all  his  affairs,  and  pursued  a  system  of  his  own,  even  in  the  smallest 
matters,  for  a  series  of  years.  Unfortunately,  too,  it  happens  that  few 
overseers  can  be  long  retained  on  the  same  place.  They  are  fond  of 
change.  If  not,  they  become  careless,  or,  if  they  think  you  have  a  high 
opinion  of  them,  demand  such  an  increase  of  wages  as  you  cannot  give  ; 
and,  in  case  you  refuse,  will  leave  you,  and  even  take  less  from  another, 
rather  than  you.     Such  is  the  disposition  of  many  of  them. 

"  These  difficulties,  like  almost  all  others,  would  be  overcome,  by  the 
planter  assuming  the  chief  management  himself.  The  overseer  would 
see  that  you  were  in  no  way  dependent  on  him— could  not  become 
careless,  without  speedy  detection — and  would  be  more  contented  to 
remain. 

"  Every  planter  will  assent  at  once,  I  am  sure,  to  the  proposition. 
The  difficulty  is,  that  so  few  will  carry  it  out — and  one  or  two  cannot 
do  it.  Overseers  who  can  choose  employers — which  most  overseers 
worth  having  can  do — will  not  submit  to  it,  if  they  can  avoid  it.  It  is 
necessary,  therefore,  that  most,  if  not  all  planters,  should  unite  in 
carrying  out  the  system ;  and  what  I  have  written  has  been  in  the 
hope  that  it  might  possibly  have  some  influence  in  bringing  about  so 
desirable  a  consummation."* 

Another  member  of  the  favored  class  elucidates  the  working 
of  the  system  as  follows.  [By  "  the  man  of  literature"  it  will  be 
evident  that  the  orator  means  the  man  whose  main  motive  of  life 
is  recreation.] 

"  Literature  will  enable  one  to  take  a  comprehensive  view  of  agri- 
culture ;  to  compare  systems  of  different  countries,  and  choose  what  is 
best  for  his  own  purposes ;  to  trace  effects  to  causes ;  to  analyze  his 
lands,  perceive  their  defects,  and  apply  the  remedies.  On  the  other 
hand,    *    *    *    we  know  that  success  in   agriculture   depends   on 


*  Southern  Agriculturist,  Charleston,  vol.  iv.,  p.  323. 


518  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

minute  attention  to  objects,  separately,  trifling,  but,  aggregately,  of  the 
greatest  importance — indeed,  absolutely  essential  to  success.  The  mar. 
of  literature,  who  is  habituated  to  generalize  his  thoughts,  canno* 
devote  his  atention  to  minutiae,  even  though  he  may  be  conscious  of 
their  importance.  Further,  it  is  in  vain  to  possess  a  knowledge  t  f 
planting,  without  possessing  a  knowledge  of  the  proper  management 
of  slaves.  They  are  an  impelling  power  ;  and,  if  not  properly  directed, 
will  lead  to  failure.  Now,  the  very  means  of  acquiring  literature,  if 
not  the  acquisition  itself,  incapacitates  us  from  being  able  to  compete 
with  men  in  their  knowledge  of  trickery.  Nothing  but  an  early  know- 
ledge of  their  powers  of  evasion  will  allow  us  to  detect  their  duplicity, 
and  prevent  us  from  becoming  the  dupes  of  their  superior  cunning,  or 
sagacity  in  roguery,  if  you  please,  in  our  relative  situations.  It  is 
their  business  to  deceive  us,  and  ours  to  detect  the  deceit.  The  man 
of  literary  knowledge  enters  the  field  at  disadvantage,  and  must  be 
imposed  upon.  Perhaps  the  strongest  argument  is,  that  the  acquisition 
of  knowledge  makes  his  taste  fastidious,  so  that  he  compounds  to  be 
imposed  upon.* 

In  De  Bow's  Review,  a  monthly  periodical,  especially  devoted 
to  the  advocacy  of  the  theories,  interests,  and  measures  of  the 
South  Carolina  school  of  politicians,  for  November,  1855,  is  an 
article  on  the  agriculture  of  South  Carolina,  by  a  South  Caro- 
linian ;  written  for  "  The  Carolinian"  newspaper,  and  endorser 
by  the  Editor  of  the  Review — who  is  Superintendent  of  the  U.  S. 
Census,  and  also  himself  a  Carolinian-born — as  "  an  able  and 
valuable  essay."  It  is  so.  By  carefully  weighing  and  connect- 
ing a  variety  of  statistical  information,  many  most  interesting 
conclusions  are  reached — all  of  which,  but  for  their  length,  x 
would  copy.  One  section  of  them  will,  however,  suffice  for 
my  purpose. 

"  The  average  value  of  the  productive  industry  of  the  State  does  not 
exceed,  as  shown  in  the  table,  $62  per  head  of  the  entire  population, 

♦Address,  before  the  St.  Andrew's,  Ashley,  and  Stone  Eiver  Agricultural 
Association,  by  their  President,  J.  S.  Brisbane,  Esq.,  1844. 


EXPERIENCE     OF     SOUTH     CAROLINA.  519 

omitting  the  two  cities,  Charleston  and  Columbia.  Full  one-half,  or 
more,  of  this  amount  is  consumed  on  the  plantation  or  farm,  as  neces- 
sary means  of  subsistence  ;  leaving  about  $31  as  the  value  of  cotton 
and  other  marketable  produce,  per  head.  Of  this  $31,  about  one- 
third,  upon  an  average,  is  required  to  meet  the  necessary  expenses  of 
clothing,  overseers'  wages,  or  superintendence,  taxes,  physicians'  and 
blacksmiths'  bills,  to  say  nothing  of  the  expense  of  renewing  the  loss 
of  mule  and  horse-power,  and  other  necessary  charges  occasionally  in- 
curred, leaving  a  net  profit  of  only  $20. G6  per  head  of  the  entire  popu- 
lation. We  have  seen  that  the  entire  capital  of  the  State,  in  land  and 
labor,  is,  at  a  moderate  estimate,  $269,000,000,  or  full  $400  per  capita, 
not  including,  in  this  estimate  of  value,  that  portion  of  the  population 
which  is  a  charge  upon  the  active  capital.  If  the  natural  increase  is 
computed  in  the  account,  that  of  course  will,  in  most  cases,  more  than 
cover  this  part  of  the  expense.  This,  however,  is  foreign  to  the  matter 
in  hand.  But  to  this  capital  of  $400  per  head  must  be  added  a  capital 
of  not  less  than  $116  more,  to  cover  the  regular  losses  from  death  and 
decline  in  the  labor  actually  employed  ;  which  reduces  the  net  profit 
on  the  capital  to  three  and  six-tenths  per  cent,  per  annum.  All  the 
capital  in  labor  is  sunk  in  the  average  period  of  about  twenty-two 
years,  and  $211,  the  laboring  part  of  capital,  being  $12.34  per  annum, 
which  is  the  interest  of  $116,  at  seven  per  cent,  per  annum. 

"  Let  us  now  suppose  the  production  per  head  one  hundred  dollars  (and 
it  is  over  this  amount  in  half  of  the  Eastern  States),  after  making  the 
same  deductions  as  above,  for  subsistence  and  other  expenses,  there 
would  still  be  left  a  net  profit  of  $59.66  per  head.  If,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  such  a  profit  from  the  cultivation  of  fertile  lands,  the  popula- 
tion were  doubled  (as  soon  it  would  be),  such  lands  might,  and  probably 
would,  be  enhanced  to  five  times  the  present  value  of  the  lands  of  this 
State  ;  while  such  a  profit  would  pay  more  than  eight  per  cent,  on  the 
capital  thus  enhanced,  and  the  lands  then  be  worth  more  than  the  same 
lands  now,  with  all  the  slaves  upon  them.  The  large  amount  of  lands 
now  necessarily  cultivated  to  produce  a  given  amount  of  cotton,  corn, 
or  other  produce,  being  three  or  four  times  the  quantity  necessary,  if 
they  were  of  first  quality,  and  the  consequent  increased  amount  of 
labor  expended  in  cultivation,  show  conclusively  the  low  condition  of 
our  agriculture. 

"  It  is  too  obvious  to  require  extended  illustration,  that  the  slow 
advance  of  our  population  mainly  arises  from  the  impoverished  condition 


520  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

of  our  lands.  As  lands  become  exhausted,  the  returns  are  not  only 
small  and  unremunerating,  but  crops  become  uncertain,  from  casualties 
and  vicissitudes  of  season,  subsistence  more  precarious,  and  obtained  at 
greater  cost  The  striking  fact  that  those  districts  possessing  naturally 
the  best  soils  are  almost  stationary  in  population,  while  districts  of 
inferior  soils  naturally  are  filling  up,  show  not  only  the  exhausted  state 
of  the  soil  in  the  former,  but  prove  that  the  character  of  slave-labor,  and 
the  system  of  cultivation  adopted,  are  unfriendly  to  density  of  popu- 
lation. 

"  The  exhaustion  of  our  lands,  above  alluded  to,  is  further  evinced  by 
the  fact  that,  in  the  last  thirty  years,  they  have  remained  generally 
stationary  in  price  ;  and,  in  many  instances,  have  actually  declined. 
Another  fact,  very  significant  of  this  truth,  is  the  regularly  increased 
amount  of  lands  cultivated  in  different  crops  per  hand,  particularly  in 
cotton,  while  the  amount  produced  is  proportionally  less." 

The  business  committee  of  the  South  Carolina  State  Agricultu- 
ral Society  reported,  Aug.  9,  1855  : — 

"  Our  old-fields  are  enlarging,  our  homesteads  have  been  decreasing 
fearfully  in  number.  *  *  *  We  are  not  only  losing  some  of  our  most 
energetic  and  useful  citizens  to  supply  the  bone  and  sinew  of  other 
States,  but  we  are  losing  our  slave  population,  which  is  the  true  wealth 
of  the  State,  our  stocks  of  hogs,  horses,  mules,  and  cattle  are  diminish- 
ing in  size  and  decreasing  in  number,  and  our  purses  are  strained  for 
the  last  cent  to  supply  their  places  from  the  Northwestern  States." 

The  absurd  state  and  sectional  pride  of  the  South  Carolinians, 
their  simple  and  profound  contempt  for  everything  foreign  except 
despotism  ;  their  scornful  hatred  especially  of  all  honestly  demo- 
cratic States,  and  of  everything  that  proceeds  from  them;  the 
ridiculous  cockerel-like  manner  in  which  they  swell,  strut,  bluster, 
and  bully  in  their  confederate  relations,  is  so  trite  a  subject  of 
amusement  at  the  North,  that  I  can  only  allude  to  it  as  afford- 
ing another  evidence  of  a  decayed  and  stultified  people.  In  this 
particular  they  are  hardly  surpassed  by  the  most  bigoted  old 
Turks,  or  the  most  interior  mandarins  of  the  Yellow  Dragon. 


EXPERIENCE     OF     SOUTH    CAROLINA.         521 

The  following  extract  from  the  letter  of  a  gentleman  who 
manifests  every  disposition  to  take  things  quietly,  but  who  is  a 
straightforward,  honest  man,  presents,  in  a  clear  and  forcible  man- 
ner, the  present  predicament  of  the  State,  and  the  urgent  need 
for  more  statesmanlike  policy  in  her  legislation.  It  is  published 
in  the  Charleston  Standard,  the  editor  of  which  calls  attention  to 
it,  as  worthy  of  especial  consideration  by  every  enlightened 
mind,  North  or  South.  Two  grand  juries'  of  South  Carolina  (it 
is  not,  I  believe,  generally  known  at  the  North)  have  lately,  in 
the  most  solemn  manner,  recommended  a  renewed  importation 
of  slaves  from  Africa,  as  the  only  remedy  which  the  pride  of  the 
people  of  the  State  will  permit  them  to  make  use  of,  for  their 
half-acknowledged  debility.  The  proposal  is  favored  by  the 
most  influential  newspapers  of  the  State;  and  a  committee  of 
the  Legislature,  to  whom  the  subject  was  referred,  has  given  its 
approval  of  the  measure,  on  theological,  moral  and  economical 
grounds,  though  recommending,  from  considerations  of  temporary 
policy,  that  no  action  should  at  present  be  taken  in  the  matter : 

"  For  my  own  part,  I  do  not  think  that  happiness  necessarily  consists 
in  crowded  communities,  though  I  confess  that  in  crowded  communities 
we  find  more  to  satisfy  the  taste,  and  more  of  the'  comforts  of  social  life. 
Nor  do  I  believe  that  the  stability  of  the  institution  of  domestic  Slavery 
depends  upon  its  covering  the  same  precise  extent  of  superficial  area,  or 
upon  its  possessing  the  same  precise  amount  of  political  power  as  that 
which  is  possessed  by  the  Free  States  of  this  confederacy.  I  believe 
that  there  is  the  possibility  of  happiness  everywhere,  and  that  Slavery 
is  destined  to  an  existence  perpetual  as  the  hills  on  which  it  has  been 
planted,  and  is  destined  to  survive  the  forms  of  social  constitution  which 
oppose  it,  no  matter  what  may  be  the  present  action  of  our  people.  But 
still,  if  we  must  have  towus  and  cities  like  the  North,  if  we  must  have 
manufacturing  establishments,  if  our  country  must  be  cut  up  into  small 
parcels,  and  must  bloom  like  a  garden,  if  our  rail-roads  are  to  find  the 
business  which  is  to  make  them  profitable,  and  our  rivers  are  to  be  ren- 


522  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

dered  navig  ible,  and  our  forests  planted,  and  the  whole  country  become 
resonant  with  the  sounds  of  active  industry,  and  if,  besides  all  this,  we 
must  have  Kansas  and  Nebraska  slave  territory — and  I  confess  it  would 
seem  to  be  more  in  accordance  with  the  schemes  of  an  overruling  Provi- 
dence— ive  must  have  the  population.  If  we  have  these  results,  we  must 
have  men  to  work  them.  But  it  has  been  my  unfortunate  experience  to 
find  in  the  men  who  mourn  the  most  over  the  prostrate  condition  of  the 
State,  and  who  browbeat  me  when  I  say  a  word  in  its  favor,  the  very 
men  who  shrink  from  every  desirable  measure  of  escape. 

"  If  we  propose  to  bring  over  among  us  the  artisans  and  farmers  from 
Central  Europe,  who  have  made  their  roads,  their  canals,  their  farms, 
their  gardens,  and  by  their  wants  have  given  value  to  every  vacant  spot 
of  land  in  New  York  and  the  New  England  States,  they  raise  a  finger 
of  warning  at  us.  These  men,  when  they  come,  they  tell  us,  will  exclude 
our  slaves  from  their  legitimate  employments,  and  will  create  a  senti- 
ment, even  in  the  Slave  States  themselves,  against  the  institution. 

"  This,  to  a  great  extent,  is  true.  There  can  be  no  question  but  that 
when  slaves  are  cheap,  free  labor  will  come  to  union  with  them.  Free 
enterprise  will  take  the  slave,  as  the  cheapest  labor  it  can  get ;  but 
when  slaves  are  dear,  as  they  are  now,  it  is  equally  certain  that  free 
enterprise,  instead  of  using  Slavery,  will  combine  against  it ;  and  the 
truth  is,  therefore,  that  while  near  ten  thousand  foreigners  have  come  to 
Charleston  within  the  last  thirty  years,  near  ten  thousand  negroes  have 
left  it  in  the  same  time.  But  when,  to  obviate  it,  we  propose  to  re- 
open the  slave-trade,  and  present  enough  of  slaves  to  counteract  the 
tendency  of  free-labor,  they  raise  up  both  hands  in  pious  horror. 

"  The  man  who  will  buy  the  negro  that  has  been  torn  from  his  home 
in  North  Carolina  or  Virginia — the  negro  who  has  been  elevated  to  a 
sense  of  natural  and  social  relations  by  the  influence  of  enlightened 
institutions,  and  the  blessed  precepts  of  the  Gospel,  and  who  may  come 
with  his  heart-strings  bleeding  from  the  recent  rupture,  will  stand 
aghast  at  the  enormity  of  buying  from  the  merchant  of  Massachusetts 
or  New  York  the  savage  African,  who  knows  no  ties  of  relationship, 
and  whose  condition  at  home  was  one  of  hopeless  slavery  to  a  master 
not  less  a  savage  than  himself.  If  men  are  to  make  a  fuss  upon  this  sub- 
ject, they  must  begin  with  the  domestic  slave  trade." 

The  amount  of  it,  then,  is  this  :  Improvement  and  progress  in 
South  Carolina  is  forbidden  by  its  present  system.     There  are 


EXPERIENCE     OF     SOUTH     CAROLINA.  523 

two  ways,  in  one  of  which  the  difficulty  must  be  met :  by  offer- 
ing encouragement  to  the  emigration  of  men  from  regions  in 
which  Slavery  has  not  destroyed  the  capacity  to  labor  in  the  ■ 
people,  or  by  the  importation  of  savages.  In  the  first  case, 
Slavery  will  have  to  be  given  up ;  in  the  latter,  free  or  skilled 
labor  must  be  dispensed  with,  and  the  great  majority  of  whites 
must  be  still  further  degraded  and  pauperized. 

South  Carolina  must  meet  her  destiny :  either  be  democrat- 
ized or  barbarianized. 

I  have  no  doubt  hundreds  of  her  planters  will  say,  when  they 
read  this — and  they  may  read  it,  though  the  poor  people  may 
not — "  Let  it  be  so :  barbarism  rather  than  voluntarily  yield  a 
hair's  breadth  to  this  base-born  agrarianism.  The  penalty  will 
not  come  in  our  time — at  least  not  on  us."  _„ 

One  hundred  years  hence,  the  men  whose  wealth  and  talent 
will  rule  South  Carolina,  will  be,  in  large  part,  the  descendants 
of  those  now  living  in  poverty,  ignorance,  and  the  vices  of  stupid 
and  imbecile  minds.  Will  they  still  be  taking  counsel  of  their 
pride,  cramming  their  children  with  the  ancient  sophistries  of 
tyranny,  and  harden  their  hearts  to  resist  the  demands  of  vulgar 
Humanity  % 

Later  than  in  Virginia  the  spirit  of  manliness  and  of  personal 
aspiration  will  permeate  the  people  of  South  Carolina ;  and  they 
will  demand  freedom,  equality  and  fraternity  in  the  social  organi- 
zation. Later,  yet  it  will  come,  and  will  prevail.  But  how 
much  will,  in  the  meanwhile,  have  been  lost. 


GEORGIA. 
"  Non  sibi  sed  aliis-" 

The  settlement  of  Georgia  did  not  originate  in  mercenary  and 


524  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

ambitious  motives.  The  design  of  the  founders  of  the  Colony 
was  to  provide  for  the  poor  and  unfortunate — more  especially 
for  discharged  prisoners — an  asylum  in  which  they  might  he 
hoped,  when  free  from  the  social  submergement  and  weight  of 
disgrace  which,  disabled  them  in  England,  to  support  themselves 
by  honest  industry.  A  corporation  for  this  purpose  having 
been  framed,  a  seal  was  adopted  on  which  the  cap  of  Liberty 
was  a  prominent  emblem,  with  the  motto,  "  Non  sibi  sed  aliis" 
"  signifying,"  says  Hewitt,  "  that  neither  the  first  Trustees,  nor 
their  successors  could  have  any  views  of  interest,  it  being  entire- 
ly designed  for  the  benefit  and  happiness  of  others." 

Conscious  that  the  class  for  whom  they  were  to  provide  were 
most  liable,  under  the  best  of  circumstances,  to  continue  to 
suffer  from  their  own  weak  character,  the  Trustees  set  about  the 
formation  of  a  constitution,  or  code  of  laws,  Avhich  should,  as  far 
as  possible,  guard  their  beneficiaries  from  temptation  to  trust  to 
anything  but  honest  and  persevering  industry  for  success,  and 
which  should  educate  them  to  sobriety,  self-confidence,  and  per- 
severance in  labor. 

In  the  first  place,  therefore,  they  obtained  from  the  king  a 
guarantee  to  all  of  whatever  birth,  or  previous  condition  or  per- 
suasion of  mind,  who  should  settle  in  the  Colony,  equality  of 
rights  with  each  other,  and  with  all  the  free-born  subjects  of  the 
king,  native  of  Great  Britain ;  and  to  all,  except  Papists,  perfect 
religious  freedom.  Negro  slavery  was  expressly  prohibited  to 
exist  in  the  Colony.  Trade  with  the  West  Indies  was  forbidden, 
to  prevent  the  importation  of  rum.  Kestrictions  were  placed 
upon  the  trade  with  the  Indians — always  a  fruitful  source  of 
danger  in  the  frontier  settlements  in  America,  and  no  less  a 
school  of  knavery,  and  of  all  vicious  habits,  than  the  jails  of 


EXPERIENCE     OF     GEORGIA.  525 

London.  To  prevent  large  tracts  from  falling,  in  process  of 
time,  under  one  possessor,  land  was  to  be  granted  to  the  settlers 
only  in  tail  male,  subject,  on  the  failure  of  a  male  heir,  to  return 
to  the  government  of  the  Colony,  by  which  it  should  be  granted 
anew  to  such  other  persons,  as  should  be  judged  for  the  best 
interest  of  the  commonwealth,  provision  being  made  for  widows 
and  female  children.  Land,  in  any  case,  was  to  be  granted  only 
on  condition  that  it  should  be  made  productive  ;  and  if  it  should 
fail  to  have  been  fenced,  cleared,  and  cultivated  in  eighteen  years 
after  it  was  granted,  in  order  to  remove  the  temptation  to  hold 
it  longer,  in  idleness,  for  speculation,  it  was  stipulated  that  it 
should  revert  to  the  government.  Under  no  consideration  was 
any  one  person  or  family,  however  large  or  wealthy,  to  be 
granted  more  than  five  hundred  acres  of  land  within  the  Colony. 

A  secondary  purpose  of  the  corporation,  by  which  their  pro- 
ject was  recommended  to  the  favor  of  the  king,  was  to  form  out- 
posts, to  guard  the  Carolinas  from  invasion  by  the  Spaniards, 
then  strongly  fortified  in  Florida.  For  this  purpose,  all  grants 
of  land  were  made  on  condition  that  the  grantees  should  be  pre- 
pared to  take  arms,  whenever  called  upon  by  proper  authority. 

"  The  first  embarkations  of  poor  people  from  England  (I 
quote  from  Hewitt),  being  collected  from  towns  and  cities,  were 
found  equally  idle  and  useless  members  of  society  abroad,  as 
they  had  been  at  home.  A  hardy  and  bold  race  of  men,  inured 
to  rural  labor  and  fatigue,  they  (the  Trustees}  were  persuaded 
would  be  much  better  adapted,  both  to  cultivation  and  defense." 
A  hundred  and  thirty  frugal  and  industrious  laboring  men  were 
therefore  procured  from  Scotland,  and  one  hundred  and  seventy 
more  of  the  same  sort  from  Germany.  The  liberal  and  demo- 
cratic character  of  the   Colony  rapidly  added  to   it  additional 


526  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

forces  of  these  honest  and  self-reliant  people.  They  were  settled 
at  posts  of  danger  and  barrenness,  on  the  extreme  frontier,  while 
the  moral  strength  of  the  English  invalids  was  attempted  to  be 
nursed  on  the  banks  of  the  Savannah,  in  the  nearest  part  of  the 
Colony  to  the -South  Carolina  plantations.*     A  sad  error,  this. 

Like  children,  weak  in  good  resolution,  unaccustomed  to 
labor,  habitually  despondent,  and  ready  to  despair  at  the  first 
occurrence  of  unexpected  difficulty,  the  English  settlers  needed 
to  be  constantly  cheered  and  animated.  That  the  laws  designed 
to  remove  temptation  to  vice,  and  to  restrain  unhealthy  specula- 
tion, operated,  in  some  degree,  also,  to  check  enterprise,  and 
restrict  competition  among  traders  and  men  of  capital,  there  can 
be  no  question.  But,  if  it  be  remembered  how  largely  the  Colony 
was  composed  of  people  whose  first  and  best  business  it  should 
have  been  to  produce  food,  and  build  shelter  for  themselves,  and 
not  to  transfer  goods,  I  can  see  no  grounds  for  esteeming, 
according  to  a  common  assumption,  that  the  first  constitution 
and  laws  of  Georgia  were  the  worst  which  could  have  been  de- 
vised for  their  purpose.  Considering  that  they  were  drawn  in  an 
age  when,  by  many,  feudalism  was  still  deemed  the  highest  pos- 
sible attainment  of  political  and  social  science,  they  seem  to  me 
to  have  been  an  extraordinarily  sagacious  production. 

These  people,  of  course,  were  indolent,  dejected,  and  soon  dis- 
contented. Like  all  such  unfortunates,  they  labored  to  find,  in 
the  errors  of  others,  or  in  circumstances  over  which  they  had  no 
control,  the  grounds  of  that  unhappiness  which  resulted  from 
their  own  misconduct  or  indolence. 

The  merchants,  who  thought  their  interests  would  be  served 

*  Hewitt,  ii.,  45. 


EXPERIENCE     OF     GEORGIA.  527 

by  a  liquor  and  a  slave-traffic,  and  by  a  free  trade  with  drunken 
Indians,  found  nothing  but  hardship  and  danger  in  the  restric- 
tions of  the  law.  The  South  Carolinians,  over  the  river,  had 
slaves  to  do  their  work  for  them,  made  themselves  jolly  with 
cheap  rum,  and  entertained  Indians  and  pirates  with  great  profit. 
The  ignorant,  poor  people  were  very  ready  to  believe  themselves 
oppressed ;  that  it  was  impossible  for  white  people  to  work  in 
that  climate,  especially  without  cheap  liquor,  to  sustain  their 
strength,  and  were  easily  persuaded  to  raise  an  outcry  for  free 
trade  and  Slavery.  Ungrateful,  "  they  could,"  says  Hewitt, 
"view  the  design  of  the  Trustees  in  no  other  light  than  that  of 
having  decoyed  them  into  misery,"  and  "they  frankly  told  them 
that  nothing  could  prevent  the  Colony  from  being  totally  de- 
serted, but  the  same  encouragement  with  their  more  fortunate 
neighbors  in  Carolina."* 

"  But  the  Highlanders,"  says  the  same  chronicler,  strangely 
enough,  "instead  of  joining  in  this  application,  to  a  man  remon- 
strated against  the  introduction  of  slaves."  "  They  considered 
perpetual  Slavery  as  shocking  to  human  nature,  and  deemed  the 
•permission  of  it  a  grievance,  and  which,  in  some  future  day, 
might  also  prove  a  scourge,  and  make  many  feel  the  smart  of 
that  oppression  they  [the  poor  Englishmen,]  so  earnestly  de- 
sired to  introduce."  So  it  was  also  with  the  industrious  Ger- 
mans. 

And  for  twenty  years,  the  people  were  thus  divided  in  two 
parties :  those  who  had  been  coaxed  to  come  out  because  of 
their  bravery,  hardihood  and  industry,  forming  the  bulk  of  one — 
conservative   and   democratic;    the   speculators,   traders,   office- 

*  Hewitt,  iL,  149 


528  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

holders,  and  the  ignorant  rabble  of  loafers  at  Savannah,  who 
had  been  sent  out  for  charity's  sake,  the  other — disorganizing 
and  pro-slavery. 

Many  of  the  arguments  of  the  latter  were  identical  with  those 
we  now  hear.  -  "  They  judged  that  the  British  [read  American] 
Constitution,  zealous  for  the  rights  and  liberties  of  mankind, 
could  not  permit  subjects  [read  citizens]  to  be  deprived  of  the 
common  privileges  of  all  Colonists"  [read  white  men].  "  That 
the  cbief  cause  of  all  their  calamities  was,  the  strict  adherence  to 
a  chimerical  and  impracticable  scheme"  [read  infidel  ami  fanati- 
cal isms].  "  The  leading  men  at  New  Inverness  and  Ebenezer 
— the  Scotch  and  German  settlements — [read  Lawrence]  who  op- 
posed the  introduction  of  slaves,  were  traduced  and  persecuted." 
"  The  standing  toast  at  Savannah  was,  'the  one  thing  needful'," 
meaning  Slavery.  The  churches  were  induced  to  represent  it 
as  desirable  that  Africans  should  be  imported,  that  they  might 
be  converted  to  Christianity.  The  clergy  were  flattered  to 
to  preach  and  pray  for  it  as  an  institution  sanctioned  by  the 
Bible.  The  South  Carolinians  constantly  said  all  they  could, 
to  increase  the  discouragement  of  the  Georgians,  and  to  assist 
them  to  obtain  an  abrogation  of  the  proviso  against  slaves.* 

At  length,  after  slaves  had  been  for  some  time  imported  and 
held  in  defiance  of  the  law,  or  an  evasion  had  been  prac- 
ticed, by  obtaining  them  from  South  Carolina  on  a  life- 
lease,  the  benevolent  Trustees,  "  weary  of  the  complaints  of  the 
people,"  were  persuaded  to  resign  their  charter.  The  king  at 
once  accepted  it,  appointed  a  royal  governor,  and  removed 
all  restraint  to  Slavery. 

*  Hewitt  and  Hildreth. 


EXPERIENCE     OF     GEORGIA.  529 

One  can,  I  think,  with  considerable  confidence  anticipate,  that 
though  Kansas  should  be  forced,  in  this  second  year  of  its  settle- 
ment, to  submit  to  the  permission  of  Slavery,  the  strong  senti- 
ment of  a  large  part  of  the  settlers  against  it,  and  the  free-labor 
character  sustained  up  to  the  present  time,  by  so  many  of  them, 
will,  in  a  degree,  restrict  the  evil  of  Slavery,  and  insure  a  better 
character  to  its  future  population,  than  would  be  the  case  if, 
from  the  outset,  Slavery  had  been  welcomed,  and  inconsiderately 
submitted  to  by  all  the  people. 

It  is  but  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  during  the  much  larger 
protection  from,  and  resistance  to  Slavery,  enjoyed  by  the  first 
settlers  of  Georgia,  habits  of  hopeful  labor,  and  genuine,  honest 
industry,  had  been  established  among  much  of  its  rural  English, 
as  well  as  retained,  and  more  than  ever  cherished  by  the  Scotch 
and  German  portion  of  its  population.  Such  men  would  natu- 
rally disdain,  for  a  long  time,  to  avail  themselves  of  the  unre- 
quited labor  of  slaves ;  or,  if  using  it,  would  be  less  demoralized 
by  its  use  than  others,  and  would  educate  their  families,  not 
only  in  their  own  habits,  but  to  some  degree  in  their  own  senti- 
ments of  respect  for  labor. 

Being  the  most  vigorous  in  body  as  well  as  in  mind,  the  num-  , 
ber  of  their  descendants  would  be  large  in  proportion  to  those  of 
the  more  effeminate  class.  Thus,  unless  the  after  immigration, 
or  other  circumstances,  should  be  very  much  against  it,  the  cus- 
toms, the  opinions,  the  popular  legislation,  and  whole  character 
of  the  general  body  politic  of  the  State  might  have  been  expected 
to  be  greatly  and  favorably  influenced  by  these  early  laws  and 
these  early  habits  and  sentiments  of  a  part  of  its  people. 

This  element  has,  of  course,  been  greatly  smothered ;  yet  in 

our  own  day,  it  is  obvious  to  the  traveler,  and  notorious  in  the 
23 


530  OUR      SLAVE      STATES. 

stock  market,  that  tkore  is  more  life,  enterprise,  skill,  and  indus- 
try in  Georgia  than  in  any  other  of  the  old  Slave  Common- 
wealths. 

In  a  letter  from  a  native  Alabamian  to  a  New  York  paper 
(the  Times),  it  is  thus  testified: 

.  "  Georgia  has  the  reputation  of  being  the  Yankee  land  of  tJie  Scruth, 
and  it  is  well  deserved.  She  has  the  idea  of  doing — the  will  and  the 
hand  to  undertake  and  accomplish — and  you  have  only  to  be  abroad 
among  her  people  to  see  that  she  intends  to  lead  the  way  in  the  race  of 
Southern  empire.  Already  over  eight  hundred  miles  of  rail-road  have 
been  finished  ;  but  this  is  only  one  item  of  her  rapid  advance.  Facto- 
ries, improved  means  of  agriculture,  diversified  labor,  endowed  institu- 
tions, are  all  contributing  to  her  progress.  I  have  known  many 
Georgians  who  are  settled  over  the  Southwest  in  the  different  States, 
and  have  always  found  them  a  very  industrious,  moral,  elevated  people." 

And  the  present  laws  of  Georgia  show  the  effects  of  the  early 
democratic  education  of  the  Colony,  as  do  those  of  South  Caro- 
lina the  reverse  influences  attending  her  settlement ;  being  still 
much  less  undemocratic,  with  regard  to  the  Avhites,  much  less 
inhumane  with  regard  to  the  blades,  than  those  of  the  other  pre- 
revolutionary  Slave  States.  Although  advantage  continues  to 
be  taken  of  that  provision  of  the  Constitution,  which  permits 
slave  property  to  be  represented  in  our  national  councils,  Georgia 
repudiates,  in  her  internal  politics,  the  absurd  and  unjust  prin- 
ciple of  it.  The  vote  of  every  freeman  counts  one,  and  but  one, 
though  he  owns  a  hundred  slaves.*     The  wickedness  and  danger 


*  A  friend  of  mine  once  said  to  a  Georgian:  "  I  confess,  H.,  whenever  I  am 
reminded  that  your  power  in  our  Congress,  hy  the  reason  of  the  hundred  slaves 
you  own,  counts  as  sixty-one  to  my  one,  because  I  happen  to  live  at  the  North, 
and  choose  to  invest  the  results  of  my  labor  in  rail-roads,  instead  of  niggers,  I 
have  a  very  strong  indisposition  to  submit  to  it." 

"I  declare,"  answered  the  Georgian,  "I  should  think  you  would;  I  never 


EXPERIENCE     OF     GEORGIA.  531 

of  the  internal  slave  trade  is  distinctly  recognized,  by  a  provision 
of  her  laws  forbidding  the  importation  of  slaves  from  other  States. 
A  provision  which,  unfortunately,  however,  like  nearly  all  laws 
against  the  evils  of  Slavery,  is  so  easily  evaded  as  to  be  entirely 
useless,  except  as  an  act  of  conscience.  The  restrictive  laws  of 
the  State,  upon  negroes — as  those  forbidding  their  instruction, 
and  those  with  regard  to  free  colored  seamen — are  less  fre- 
quently enforced,  and  are  more  unpopular,  and  more  violently, 
because  less  honestly,  defended,  than  in  any  other  State.  More 
stringent  and  outrageous  means  have  also  been  taken  to  prevent 
the  "infection  of  abolitionism"  reaching  the  people  in  Georgia, 
than  in  any  other  State,  evidently  because  the  apprehension  of  it 
by  the  ruling  class  has  been  greater  than  elsewhere.  There  still 
stands  unrepealed  an  act  of  the  legislature,  offering  a  large 
reward  for  the  head  of  a  citizen  of  New  York,  who  has  commit- 
ted no  crime  recognized  by  the  constitution  of  the  confederacy. 

But,  let  us  consider,  what  was  the  effect  of  abrogating  the 
law  of  freedom  ? 

It  was  several  years  before  slaves  began  to  be  much  used — 
showing  that,  during  the  greatest  clamor  for  them,  there  were 
very  few  persons  who  personally  wanted  them.  Ultimately, 
however,  large  speculations  began  to  be  made  with  their  labor ; 
and,  at  the  same  time,  the  richer  class — as  in  Virginia  and  Caro- 

thought  of  it  in  that  light  before  ;  it's  wrong,  and  you  ought  not  to  submit  to  it 
— and,  if  I  were  you,  I  would  not." 

Howison,  the  Virginia  historian,  said,  in  1848 :  "  It  would  be  hard  to  find  an 
equitable  objection  to  this  compromise  (the  slave  representation).  The  instru- 
ment containing  it  was  adopted  by  the  Northern  States,  and  they  have  ever 
since  acquiesced  without  resistance ;  and  if  it  was  right  for  the  Union,  it  seems, 
a  fortiori,  right  for  Virginia." 

As  the  people  of  Virginia  has  since  decided  that  it  is  not  right  for  Virginia, 
as  have  those  of  Georgia  for  their  State,  it  would  seem,  "  a  fortiori,"  not  right 
for  the  Union       [See  Appendix  A.] 


532  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

lina — commenced  to  secure  for  themselves,  and  to  withdraw 
from  the  labor  of  the  free  poor,  the  most  available  land  of  the 
country.  Many  planters  were  attracted  from  South  Carolina, 
the  general  immigration  continued,  and  more  capitalists  were 
numbered  in  it.  Were  the  poor  people,  or  the  people  in  general, 
out  of  those  engaged  in  commerce,  benefited  thereby?  Not  at 
all.  Instead  of  giving  them  profitable  employment,  these  capi- 
talists bought  slaves  in  large  numbers,  and  monopolized  for 
them,  in  a  great  degree,  the  valuable  opportunities  and  en- 
couragements to  labor,  which  the  Colony  afforded.  These 
slaves  they  obliged  to  obtain  whatever  of  value  the  country 
would  produce,  returning  them  only  the  small  share  of  these 
productions  necessary  to  sustain  their  lives.  Whatever  else 
they  wanted,  they  obtained  direct,  or  through  the  merchants, 
from  England  ;  paying  for  it  from  the  remainder  of  the  produc- 
tions of  the  labor  of  their  slaves. 

The  poor  white  people  remained  as  before,  except  that  the 
results  of  the  labor  of  the  industrious  had  to  be  sold  in  compe- 
tition with  that  of  the  labor  of  the  slaves. 

In  short,  the  abrogation  of  the  law  was  equivalent,  in  its 
effects  on  the  people  for  whose  benefit  the  Colony  was  founded, 
to  what,  upon  honest  tradesmen,  would  be  a  general  granting 
of  licenses,  to  those  who  could  afford  to  pay  enough  for  them, 
to  sell  stolen  goods. 

Of  course,  the  wealth  of  the  land  was  more  rapidly  worked 
out,  and  there  was  a  rapid  increase  of  exports  and  imports, 
which  Southern  politicians  and  historians  cite  as  evidence  of  the 
benevolence  of  Slavery,  and  which  Hewitt  especially  points  to, 
as  proof  that  Slavery  had  been  "  the  one  thing  needful"  for  the 
prosperity  of  the  Colony. 


EXPERIENCE     OF     GEORGIA.  533 

The  following  picture,  by  a  native  Georgian,  of  what  was 
the  richest  part  of  Georgia,  Avhen  Hewitt  wrote,  will  show  at 
what  expense  this  rapid  increase  of  wealth — that  is,  of  wealthy- 
people  and  of  trade,  in  the  Colony — was  obtained : 

"  The  classic  hut  occupied  a  lovely  spot,  overshadowed  by  majestic 
hickories,  towering  poplars,  and  strong-armed  oaks.  The  little  plain  on 
which  it  stood,  was  terminated,  at  the  distance  of  about  fifty  feet  from 
the  door,  by  the  brow  of  a  hill,  which  descended  rather  abruptly  to  a 
noble  spring,  that  gushed  joyously  forth  from  among  the  roots  of  a 
stately  beech,  at  its  foot.  The  stream  from  this  fountain  scarcely  burst 
into  view,  before  it  hid  itself  in  the  dark  shade  of  a  field  of  cane,  which 
overspread  the  dale  through  which  it  flowed,  and  marked  its  windings, 
until  it  turned  from  sight,  among  vine-covered  hills,  at  a  distance  far 
beyond  that  to  which  the  eye  could  have  traced  it,  without  the  help  of 
its  evergreen  belt.  A  remark  of  the  Captain's,  as  we  viewed  this  lovely 
country,  will  give  the  reader  my  apology  for  the  minuteness  of  the  fore- 
going description  :  '  These  lands,'  said  he, '  will  never  wear  out.  Where 
they  lie  level,  they  will  be  just  as  good,  fifty  years  hence,  as  they  are 
now. '  Forty-two  years  afterwards,  I  visited  the  spot  on  which  he  stood 
when  he  made  the  remark.  The  sun  poured  his  whole  strength  upon 
the  bald  hill  which  once  supported  the  secpiestered  school-house  ;  many 
a  deep-washed  gully  met  at  a  sickly  bog,  where  had  gushed  the  limpid 
fountain  ;  a  dying  willow  rose  from  the  soil  which  had  nourished  the 
venerable  beech  ;  flocks  wandered  among  the  dwarf  pines,  and  cropped  a 
scanty  meal  from  the  vale  where  the  rich  cane  had  bowed  and  rustled 
to  every  breeze,  and  all  around  was  barren,  dreary,  and  cheerless."* 

I  will  quote  from  graver  authority :  De  Bow's  Eesources  of 
the  South,  from  Tenner's  Southern  Medical  Eeports : 

"  The  native  soil  of  Middle  Georgia  is  a  rich,  argillaceous  loam,  resting 
on  a  firm,  clay  foundation.  In  some  of  the  richer  counties,  nearly  all 
the  lands  have  been  cut  down,  and  appropriated  to  tillage ;  a  large 
maximum  of  which  have  been  worn  out,  leaving  a  desolate  picture  for 
the  traveler  to  behold.     Decaying  tenements,  red,  old  hills,  stripped  of 

*  Georgia  Scenes,  by  the  Rev.  and  Hon.  Judge  Longstrect,  now  President  of 
the  University  of  Mississippi.    Harper's  edition,  p.  76. 


534  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

their  native  growth  and  virgin  soil,  and  washed  into  deep  gullies,  with 
here  and  there  patches  of  Bermuda  grass  and  stunted  pine  shrub3, 
struggling  for  subsistence  on  what  was  once  one  of  the  richest  soils  in 
America."  » 

In  1854,  the  Hon.  Mr.  Stephens,  M.  C,  from  Georgia,  in  a 
speech  in  the  House  of  Eepresentatives,  attempted  to  show  that 
the  agricultural  productions  of  his  State  were  more  valuable  than 
those  of  Ohio,  and  thereby  to  obtain  an  economical  argument 
for  Slavery.  In  order  to  do  so,  he  left  hay — the  most  valuable 
crop  of  Ohio,  and  large  quantities  of  which  are  exported  to  the 
Slave  States,  but  of  which  none  of  consequence  is  raised  in 
Georgia — entirely  out  of  the  calculation  ;  giving  as  a  reason  that 
corn-fodder  was  not  returned  from  Georgia.  Corn-fodder  is  a 
crop  of  comparatively  small  value,  but  that  of  Ohio,  which,  was 
also  omitted,  would,  if  returned,  have  far  exceeded  that  of 
Georgia.  He  then  placed  absurdly  low  prices  upon  the  great 
staples  of  Ohio,  and  unusually  high  ones  upon  those  of  Georgia, 
and  even  put  higher  prices  upon  the  same  articles  in  his  Georgia 
than  in  his  Ohio  table.  The  truth  is,  though  Georgia  has  every 
advantage  in  climate,  and  enjoys,  in  common  with  other  Slave 
States,  a  natural  protection  in  the  culture  of  the  great  staple  of 
cotton,  her  average  agricultural  productions,  by  the  ordinary 
commercial  method  of  calculation — taking  the  prices  for  all 
crops  from  those  ruling  at  a  common  market — are  probably  less 
than  half  in  value  those  of  Ohio.  In  mechanical  and  manufac- 
tured articles,  the  production  of  which  requires  intelligence  and 
trained  skill  in  the  laborer,  Ohio  has  a  still  greater  superiority. 
This  disgraceful  argument  for  Slavery  has  probably  been  placed 
in  the  hands  of  nearly  every  man  who  can  read,  in  the  State  of 
Georgia.     A  refutation  of  it,  proving  Slavery  to  be   a  restraint 


EXPERIENCE     OF     GEORGIA.  535 

upon  their  prosperity,  would  be  denied  a  general  distribution 
through,  the  post-offices. 

In  De  Bow's  Review,  for  August,  1855,  may  be  found  a  table, 
based  on  the  census,  in  which  the  value  of  the  productive  in- 
dustry, in  the  year  1850,  in  Georgia,  is  said  to  be  $63,797,059. 
The  same  in  Ohio,  without  counting  the  value  of  live  stock  of  any 
kind,  $149,577,898.  The  year  1850  was  an  especially  unfavor- 
able one  for  the  most  valuable  crops  of  Ohio. 

It  is  impossible  to  obtain  statistics  which  will  show  definitely 
the  distribution  of  wealth  in  any  of  the  Slave  States.  From  a 
study  of  pages  94  and  95  of  the  official  compendium  of  the  cen- 
sus, it  appears  probable  that  only  twenty-seven  in  a  hundred  of 
the  white  families  in  Georgia  are  possessed  of  slaves,  and  that 
one  fifth  of  these  own  over  one-half  of  all  the  slaves  in  the  State. 
That  is,  less  than  one-fiftieth  of  the  white  people  own  one- 
half  of  the  property  in  slaves.  The  small  number  of  the  very 
wealthy,  without  doubt,  own  more  than  that  proportion  of  the 
wealth  of  the  State  in  land,  in  houses,  in  furniture,  and  in  all  the 
material  comforts  of  life.  In  Carolina  the  distribution  is  much 
more  unequal. 

And  how  general  is  that  intelligence  which  has  made  Georgia 
"  the  Banner  State  of  the  South?" 

Of  the  free  native  population  of  Georgia,  according  to  the 
census  returns,  one  in  nine  and  a  half,  on  an  average,  are  with- 
out the  smallest  rudiments  of  school-education  (cannot  read  or 
write).  In  Maine,  which  among  the  old  Free  States  compares 
most  closely  with  Georgia  in  density  of  population  (that  of  one 
being  16,  the  other  15  to  square  mile),  the  proportion  is  one  in 
two  hundred  and  forty-one.  With  other  Free  States,  a  com- 
parison would  be  still  more  unfavorable  to  the  Georgia  experi- 


536  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

ment,  and  more  accurate  returns  would,  doubtless,  increase  the 
contrast.* 

In  Georgia,  the  mail  expenses  are  equal  to  twenty-five  cents  a 
head  of  the  population.  The  postage  receipts  are  only  sixteen 
cents  a  head,  on  an  average.  In  Maine,  the  cost  of  transporting 
the  United  States  mails  would  be  paid  by  a  tax  of  nine  cents 
upon  each  inhabitant.  The  people,  however,  voluntarily  pay 
twenty-one  and  a  half  cents  a  head,  on  an  average,  for  the 
intelligence  conveyed  in  them.  The  people  of  Maine,  with  but 
one  more  inhabitant  to  a  square  mile,  pay  to  the  United  States 
government  considerably  more  than  twice  the  cost  of  their  mail- 
service  ;  those  of  Georgia,  less  than  two-thirds  the  cost  of  theirs. 

The  truth  is — I  judge  from  observation — it  is  a  distinct  "  bet- 
ter class  "  that  gives  Georgia  its  reputation  for  great  prosperity  ; 
and  that  class,  though  intelligence,  and  consequently  wealth,  is 
more  diffused  than  in  South  or  North  Carolina,  is  not  a  large  one, 
compared  with  the  whole  population.  It  must  be  also  admitted 
that  it  is  very  largely  composed  and  directed  in  enterprise  by 
persons  born  in  the  Free  States.     The  number  of  these,  propor- 


*  The  following  table  shows  the  native  white  population,  and  the  number  of 
native  white  adults  ignorant  of  letters,  in  a  few  States  : 

Population.        Ignorant  Adults. 

Maine, 549,674  1,999 

North  Carolina, 550,267  73,226 

Massachusetts, 819,044  1,055 

Tennessee, 749,661  77,017 

Ohio, 1,732,698  51,968 

Virginia, 871,393  75,868 

Connecticut, 324,095  726 

Maryland, 366,650  17,364 

Rhode  Island, 119,975  981 

Louisiana, 187,558  14,950 

New  York,        ......     2,388,830  23,241 

Missouri, 514,527  34,448 


EXPERIENCE  OF  GEORGIA.         537 

tionately  to  all  the  white  population,  is  much  greater  than  in  any- 
other  Slave  State. 

Until  one  has  closely  observed  the  operation  of  Slavery  upon 
the  poor  free  people  of  a  slave  community,  it  is  but  natural  to 
attribute  their  condition  only  to  causes  which,  in  free  communi- 
ties, would  be  considered  unfavorable  to  the  rapid  accumulation 
of  wealth.  The  poor  people  of  Georgia  are  mostly  seen  dwell- 
ing upon  soils  naturally  unfertile,  or  made  barren  by  the  wasteful 
necessity  of  previous  slave-holding  occupants ;  and  it  is  custom- 
ary with  travelers,  and  with  their  more  fortunate  neighbors,  to 
attribute  their  poverty  to  this  circumstance. 

If  this  were  the  case,  Slavery  would  still  be  primarily  respon- 
sible for  their  condition  ;  because,  by  concentrating  in  one  man's 
hands  the  profits  of  the  labor  of  many  hands,  it  gives  him  power 
to  purchase  for  that  labor  the  most  profitable  field  to  be  obtained 
for  its  application,  and  thus  drives  to  the  least  profitable  the  man 
who  can  use  merely  the  results  of  his  own  personal  labor.* 

But  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  poverty  of  the  soil  neces 
sitates  the  poverty  of  its  occupants.  It  may  account  for  a  sparse 
settlement,   but  does  not  for  such  general  idleness   or  ill-paid 
industry  as  is  evident  among  the  poor  whites  of  Georgia. 

There  is  no  part  of  Georgia  which  equals,  in  poverty  of 
natural  agricultural  resources,  Cape  Cod,  in  Massachusetts.    But 


*  About  forty  years  ago,  Governor  Woolcot,  of  Connecticut,  addressed  to  the 
Legislature  of  that  State  the  following  observation,  in  connection  with  a  circu- 
lar letter  on  the  subject  of  State  Rights,  sent  to  him  by  the  Legislature  of  Vir- 
ginia : 

"Where  agricultural  labor  is  wholly  or  chiefly  performed  by  slaves,  it  must 
constitute  the  principal  revenue  of  the  community.  The  owners  of  the  slaves 
must  be  the  chief  owners  of  the  soil,  and  those  laborers  who  are  too  poor  to 
own  slaves,  though  nominally  free,  must  be  dependent  on  an  aristocratic  order, 
aad  remain  without  power  or  political  influence." 

23* 


538  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

there  is  hardly  a  poor  woman's  cow  on  the  Cape  that  is  not 
better  housed  and  more  comfortably  provided  for  than  a  majority 
of  the  white  people  of  Georgia.  A  majority  of  the  people  of 
the  Cape  have  far  better  houses,  better  furniture,  better  food,  and 
altogether  live,  I  have  no  doubt,  in  more  comfort  than  the  ma- 
jority of  even  the  slave-holders  of  Georgia.*  The  people  of  the 
Cape  have  manners  and  customs,  and  a  character  peculiar  to 
themselves,  as  have  the  "  Crackers "  and  "  Sand-hillers,"  of 
Georgia.  In  both  there  is  frankness,  boldness,  and  simplicity  ; 
but  in  the  one  it  is  associated  with  intelligence,  discretion,  and 
an  expansion  of  mind,  resulting  from  considerable  education ;  in 
the  other  with  ignorance,  improvidence,  laziness,  and  the  preju- 
dices of  narrow  minds. 

It  may  be  thought  that  the  people  of  the  Cape,  though  they 
have  less  agricultural  elements  of  wealth  than  the  Sand-hillers  of 
Georgia,  have  other  advantages,  exceeding  theirs,  for  the  profit- 
able application  of  their  industry.  An  examination  of  the  facts 
will  show  the  contrary  to  be  the  case,  very  markedly,  especially 
so,  as  regards  mining  and  manufacturing.  The  inducements  to 
a  sea-faring  life  and  to  fishing  alone,  of  the  Cape  Cod  people, 
perhaps  exceed  those  of  the  Georgians  ;  but  do  the  Georgians 
make  anything  like  a  corresponding  use  of  their  facilities  of  the 
same  kind  ?  On  the  contrary,  I  found  a  gang  of  New  Engend- 
ers, and  probably  in  part  Cape  Cod  men,  fishing  in   Georgia 

*  The  following  description  is  given  of  the  residence  of  "Thomas  Gib- 
son, Esq.,  one  of  the  magistrates  of  the  county,"  in  Georgia  Scenes :  "  The 
Squire's  dwelling  [ho  has  a  large  family],  consisted  of  but  one  room,  which  an- 
swered the  three-fold  purpose  of  dining-room,  bed-room,  and  kitchen.  The 
house  was  constructed  of  logs,  and  the  floor  was  of  puncheons  [a  term  which 
means  split-logs,  with  their  faces  a  little  smoothed  with  the  axe]." 

See  also,  Lyell's  Second  Tour  in  the  United  States,  and  Parson's  Tour  among 
the  Planters. 


EXPERIENCE     OF     GEORGIA.  539 

waters,  salting  their  fish  with  salt  made  on  the  Cape  by  evapo- 
rating* the  waters  of  the  same  ocean  that  washes  the  coast  of 
Georgia,  and  selling  them  to  Georgia  planters,  to  be  fed  to 
Georgia  slaves.  Ships  are  built  on  the  Cape,  from  lumber  pro- 
cured by  the  Cape  men  from  the  Georgia  forests ;  and  then, 
being  manned  by  Cape  seamen,  are  profitably  employed  in  ex- 
porting the  Georgia  slave  staples.  Is  there  one  Georgia  built 
ship,  manned  by  one  native  Georgia  seaman?*  Is  there  one 
Georgia  fishing-smack  %  Has  there  ever  been  a  Georgia  whaler  "\ 
or  a  Georgia  sealer  ?  Never.  Yet  Georgia  is  nearer  the  great, 
sealing  and  whaling  ground,  and  is  nearer  the  chief  market  for 
fish  than  the  Cape.  Why  have  not  the  poor  Sand-hillers  turned 
their  attention  to  something  besides  raising  corn  and  bacon,  eat- 
ing clay,  drinking  whisky,  and  disputing  on  the  meaning  of  the 
Greek  BaTzrco,  for  which  alone  they  are  distinguished,  seeing  the 
small  profit  of  these  occupations  ?f  Because,  as  Marion  said, 
they  have  no  spirit  to  labor — they  have  no  care  for  the  future 
this  side  of  heaven,  to  gain  which  they  must  think  it  was  espe- 
cially provided  for  them  that  no  works  should  be  necessary — 
only  faith  and  JBannafia — whichever  that  shall  turn  out  to  be. 

It  is  evident  that  a  large  part  of  the  people  of  Georgia  still 
have  the  vagrant  and  hopeless  habits  and  character  of  Ogle- 
thorpe's first  colonists,  somewhat  favorably  modified,  it  is  true, 
by  the  physical  circumstances  which  have  made  them  superior  to 
absolute  charity  or  legal  crime,  and  also,  perhaps,  by  the  inilu- 


*  In  the  year  1854,  there  were  built  in  Maine  168,632  tons  of  shipping,  in  craft, 
averaging  over  500  tons  each.  In  Georgia,  where  the  natural  advantages  for 
the  business  arc  at  least  equally  great,  there  were  built  667  tons,  all  in  small 
craft. 

t  See  "  Letters  of  a  Pedagogue  in  Georgia,"  in  Putnam's  Magazine,  and 
Lyell's  Second  Tour. 


540  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

ence  of  a  freely  preached,  though  exceedingly  degraded,  form  of 
Christianity.  They  are  still  coarse  and  irrestrainable  in  appetite 
and  temper;  with  perverted,  eccentric  and  intemperate  spiritual 
impulses ;  faithless  in  the  value  of  their  own  labor,  and  almost 
imbecile  for  personal  elevation.  Had  Oglethorpe's  democratic 
designs  been  sustained,  who  believes  that  no  better  result  to  them 
would  have  been  arrived  at  ? 

This  year  an  appeal  is  made  to  the  patriotism  and  honor  of  the 
slave-holders  of  Georgia,  to  contribute  each  one  dollar,  for  every 
slave  he  owns,  to  the  fund  of  a  Society,  the  declared  object  of 
which  is  to  assist  in  extending  Slavery,  and  establishing  it  in  a 
great  region,  hitherto  protected  from  its  influence.  This  Society 
should  have  for  its  motto  the  words  of  Caasar : 

•:V/ith  men  we  will  get  money,  and  with  money  we  will  get  men." 


NOTE    ON    SHIP   BUILDING. 

Kentucky  and  Missouri,  as  compared  with  Maine  being  ex- 
cepted, each  of  the  Southern  States,  have  facilities  and  advan- 
tages for  ship  building,  superior,  if  it  were  not  for  Slavery,  to 
those  of  any  Northern  State.  In  two  or  three  of  them  (Free 
Trade  States),  there  is  a  bounty  paid  from  the  State  treasury  to 
the  owners  of  all  ships  built  in  them,  to  draw  Northern  mechanics 
or  increase  the  enterprise  of  the  natives. 

More  than  seven-eighths  part  of  the  tonnage,  nevertheless,  is 
from  the  Free  States,  and  of  the  rest,  the  largest  part  is  built  at 
Baltimore  and  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  under  free  labor  in- 
fluences, as  appears  by  the  following  table  which  exhibits  the 
number  of  vessels  built,  and  their  gross  tonnage  in  each  State 
last  year  (1854): 


EXPERIENCE     OF     GEORGIA. 


541 


States,  etc. 

13     . 

a? 
IS  a 

o 
a 
o 
o 

p. 

o 
o 

02 

u. 
a 

s 

a 

"3 

a 
o 

53W 

an 

348 

Maine          - 

56 

78 

90 

12 

3 

168,632 

New  Hampshire 

19 

. — 

— 

— 

2 

11 

11,980 

Massachusetts     - 

82 

4 

87 

4 

3 

180 

91,570 

Rhode  Island  - 

5 

— 

3 

1 

2 

11 

5,726 

Connecticut         - 

10 

1 

30 

8 

2 

51 

10,691 

Vermont-        ... 

— 

— 

1 

3 

■ — 

4 

227 

New  York                   -        - 

46 

10 

89 

85 

70 

300 

117,107 

New  Jersey     -        -        - 

— 

— 

33 

27 

9 

69 

8,554 

Pennsylvania-    - 

7 

4 

27 

124 

75 

237 

36,768 

Delaware         ... 

— 

— 

29 

1 

4 

34 

3,021 

Maryland     -        -        -        - 

13 

3 

101 

1 

4 

122 

20,252 

District  of  Columbia 

— 

— 

— 

42 

2 

44 

2,814 

Virginia  - 

1 

— 

a 

3 

6 

9 

3,228 

North  Carolina 

— 

— 

32 

3 

3 

38 

2,532 

South  Carolina   - 

— 

— 

13 

10 

— 

23 

1,162 

Georgia  -        -        -        - 

— 

— 

1 

— 

2 

3 

667 

Florida       - 

— 

— 

7 

— 

. — 

7 

562 

Alabama-        ... 

1 

— 

4 

2 

2 

9 

2,000 

Mississippi  -        - 

— 

— 

3 

— 

— 

3 

77 

Louisiana         ... 

1 

— 

6 

5 

2 

14 

1,509 

Tennessee    - 

2 

209 

Missouri  -        -        -        - 

2 

7 

9 

3,071 

22 

6,824 

Illinois    - 

1 

3 

8 

4 

1 

17 

3,304 

"Wisconsin  - 

— 

26 

— 

— 

26 

2,947 

Ohio        .... 

— 

4 

20 

27 

41 

92 

17,046 

Indiana       - 

4 

2,400 

Michigan         ... 

1 

5 

22 

12 

8 

48 

7,788 

Texas          - 

1 

— 

— 

— 

. — 

1 

125 

California        ... 

— 

— 

11 

10 

5 

26 

1,023 

Total  - 

334 

112 

661 

386 

281 

H774 

535,936 

"  In  the  European  market,  Georgia  pine  enjoys  an  undisputed  prefimi- 
nence  over  all  other  American  pines,  etc.,  etc." — Report  of  W.  B.  Bul- 
lock, Collector  at  Savannah,  to  Sec'y  Treas'y.  Con.  Doc.  No.  6,  p.  644, 
1846. 

"  Ship  building  was  once  followed  to  a  great  extent,  in  North  Caro- 
lina ;  but  at  present,  there  is  not  enough  tonnage  to  do  the  coasting 
trade,  [it]  having  to  rely  on  canal  boats  of  Norfolk  and  the  New  Eng- 
land vessels." — Report  to  Sec'y  Treas'y,  Doc.  No.  6,  p.  368,  1846. 


542  OUIl     SLAVE     STATES. 

The  New  Orleans  Delta  says  : 

"  We  possess  the  finest  ship  timber  in  the  world,  in  inexhaustible 
quantities,  which  is  easy  of  access,  and  can  be  cheaply  transported  to 
any  given  point.  Almost  every  day  this  timber  is  cut  down,  split, 
hewed  and  sawed  into  proper  lengths  and  shapes,  and  sent  to  Northern 
ship-yards  thousands  of  miles  off,  where  it  is  used  in  the  construction  of 
vessels,  many  of  which  come  back  here  to  engage  in  the  transportation 
of  Southern  produce.  Now,  wouldn't  it  be  cheaper  to  build  the  ships 
where  the  timber  is,  than  to  send  that  same  timber  off  some  thousands 
of  miles,  and  there  build  the  ships  ?  Of  course  it  would.  This  proposi- 
tion is  clear.  There  would  be  a  vast  saving  in  expense,  to  say  nothing 
of  local  advantages  added,  to  which  the  bonus  offered  by  the  State 
ought  to  give  a  stimulus  to  the  business,  such  as  would  make  it  grow  and 
prosper,  until  it  become  one  of  the  most  important  pursuits  of  the 
State." 


NOT*:  ON  MANUFACTURES  AND  INDUSTRY  OTHER  THAN  AGRICUL- 
TURAL AND  NAVAL. 

The  greater  part  of  Georgia  is  abundantly  provided  with 
running  water,  frequently  affording  excellent  milling  power. 
The  mineral  wealth  of  the  State  is  said,  by  geologists,  to  be 
very  great,  but  is,  at  present,  almost  entirely  undeveloped, 
except  in  gold,  which  is  somewhat  extensively  mined,  without 
much  profit.  More  attention  has  been  given  to  manufacturing 
— thus  far,  with  but  indifferent  success ;  but  I  cannot  doubt 
that,  if  the  same  judgment,  skill,  and  close  scrutiny  of  details, 
were  given  to  cotton  manufacturing,  that  is  now  evidently 
applied  to  the  management  of  rail-roads  in  Georgia,  it  would  be 
well  rewarded.  The  cost  of  the  raw  material  must  be  from 
ten  to  twenty  per  cent,  less  than  in  Massachusetts,  yet  I  saw 
Lowell  cottons,  both  fine  and  coarse,  for  sale,  almost  under 
the  roof  of  Georgia  factories.  Cotton  goods  manufactured  in 
Georgia  are  sent  to  New  York  for  sale,  and  are  there  sold  by 


EXPERIENCE     OF     GEORGIA.  543 

New  York  jobbers  to  Georgia  retailers,  who  re-transport  them 
to  the  vicinity  in  which  the  cotton  was  grown,  spun,  and  wove, 
to  be  sold,  by  the  yard  or  piece,  to  the  planter.  I  saw  the 
goods,  with  the  mill  marks,  and  was  informed  that  this  was  the 
case,  by  a  Georgia  merchant. 

Land-rent,  water-power,  timber,  fuel,  and  raw  material  for 
cotton  manufacturing,  are  all  much  cheaper  in  Georgia  than  in 
New  England.  The  only  other  item  of  importance,  in  esti- 
mating the  cost  of  manufacturing,  must  be  the  cost  of  labor, 
which  includes,  of  course,  the  efficiency  of  the  laborers.  By 
the  census,  it  appears  that  the  average  wages  of  the  female 
operatives  in  the  Georgia  cotton  factories  was,  in  1850,  $7*39  a 
month;  in  Massachusetts,  $14*57  a  month. 

Negroes  were  worth  $180  a  year,  and  found  in  clothes,  food, 
and  medical  attendance,  by  the  hirer,  to  work  on  rail-roads, 
when  I  was  in  Georgia.  The  same  year,  a  Georgia  planter, 
being  hard  pressed,  sent  to  New  York,  for  Irish  laborers  to  work 
on  his  plantation — hiring  them,  probably,  at  $10  a  month,  and 
found  in  food  only,  losing  their  own  time  when  ill — a  very 
significant  fact.  New  England  factory-girls  have  been  induced 
to  go  to  Georgia  to  work  in  newly-established  cotton  factories, 
by  the  offer  of  high  wages,  but  have  found  their  position  so 
unpleasant — owing  to  the  general  degradation  of  the  laboring 
class — as  very  soon  to  be  forced  to  return. 

A  correspondent  of  the  Charleston  News,  writing  from*  Sparta, 
Georgia,  July,  1855,  says: 

"  A  large  cotton  factory  has  been  in  operation  here  about  three  years, 
but  is  now  about  being  closed,  and .  to-day  will  probably  terminate  its 
existence.  It  unpleasantly  reminded  us  of  a  fate  of  a  similar  enter- 
prise which  so  signally  failed,  after  a  brief  career,  in  our  own  city. 


544  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

Why  is  it  so  ?  It  would  seem  to  be  reasonable,  at  least  that,  surround- 
ed with  the  raw  material,  unencumbered  with  the  cost  of  transportation 
to  Northern  cities,  Southern  manufactories  should  not  only  compete,  but 
successfully  maintain  a  higher  position  than  those  so  far  removed  from 
the  cotton-growing  region.  But  so  it  is,  with  few  exceptions,  our  own 
Graniteville  being  among  them." 

In  the  "  Southern  Commercial  Convention,"  which  met  at 
New  Orleans,  this  year  (1855),  one  of  the  orators  distinguished 
himself  by  his  splendid  delivery  of  the  following  sublime  passage, 
adapted  for  the  occasion  from  the  speech  in  the  British  Parlia- 
ment, on  taxes,  which  we  have  all  seen  in  the  "  Child's  First 
Speaker :" 

*:  It  is  time  that  we  should  look  about  us,  and  see  in  what  relation  we 
stand  to  the  North.  From  the  rattle  with  which  the  nurse  tickles  the 
ear  of  the  child  born  in  the  South,  to  the  shroud  that  covers  the  cold 
form  of  the  dead,  everything  comes  to  us  from  the  North.  We  rise 
from  between  sheets  made  in  Northern  looms,  and  pillows  of  North- 
ern feathers,  to  wash  in  basins  made  in  the  North,  dry  our  beards  on 
Northern  towels,  and  dress  ourselves  in  garments  woven  in  Northern 
looms  ;  we  eat  from  Northern  plates  and  dishes  ;  our  rooms  are  swept 
with  Northern  brooms,  our  gardens  dug  with  Northern  spades,  and  our 
bread  kneaded  in  trays  or  dishes  of  Northern  wood,  or  tin ;  and  the 
very  wood  which  feeds  our  fires  is  cut  with  Northern  axes,  helved  with 
hickory  brought  from  Connecticut  and  New  York." 

This  state  of  things  another  gentleman — who,  also,  thought 
Slavery  the  most  economical  labor-system  in  the  world — pro- 
posed to  remedy  as  follows  : 

"  Resolved,  That  this  Convention  recommend  to  each  of  the  Southern 
States  to  encourage  the  establishment  of  a  direct  trade  with  Europe, 
either  by  an  exemption  from  taxation,  for  a  limited  time,  on  the  goods 
imported  ;  or  by  allowing  the  importers  an  equivalent  drawback  or 
bounty  ;  or  by  such  other  mode  as,  to  the  legislators  of  the  respective 
States,  may  seem  best. 

"  Resolved,  That  to  further  this  great  object.  Congress  be  recommended 


EXPERIENCE     OF     GEORGIA.  545 

to  make  such  appropriations  for  deepening  the  inlets  to  harbors,  and 
other  purposes,  as  may  be  deemed  necessary." 

Fifty  other,  at  least,  equally  puerile  propositions  were  gravely 
listened  to  ;  but  not  one  man  dared  to  insinuate  that  Slavery  had 
ever  done  any  harm  to  the  South,  or  to  suggest  that  anything 
should  be  done  about  it,  except  to  maintain  and  extend  it. 

And  to  this  school  of  statesmanship  the  "  Democratic"  party, 
year  after  year,  is  obliged  to  surrender  its  power. 

"  With  men  we  will  get  money,  and  with  money  we  will  get  mm" 


OHAPTEE    IX. 

ALABAMA. 

SAVANNAH    TO    NEW    ORLEANS. 

I  left  Savannah  for  the  West,  by  the  Macon  road;  the  train 
started  punctually  to  a  second,  at  its  advertised  time ;  the  speed 
was  not  great,  but  regular,  and  less  time  was  lost  unnecessarily, 
at  way-stations,  than  usually  on  our  Northern  roads. 

I  have  traveled  more  than  five  hundred  miles  on  the  Georgia 
roads,  and  I  am  glad  to  say  that  all  of  them  seemed  to  be  ex- 
ceedingly well  managed.  The  speed  upon  them  is  not  generally 
more  than  from  fifteen  to  twenty  miles  an  hour ;  but  it  is  made, 
as  advertised,  with  considerable  punctuality.  The  roads  are 
admirably  engineered  and  constructed,  and  their  equipment  will 
compare  favorably  with  that  of  any  other  roads  on  the  con- 
tinent. There  are  now  very  nearly,  if  not  quite,  one  thousand 
miles  of  rail-road  in  the  State,  and  more  building.  The 
Savannah  and  Macon  line — the  first  built — was  commenced  in 
1834.  The  increased  commerce  of  the  city  of  Savannah, 
which  followed  its  completion,  stimulated  many  other  rail- 
road enterprises,  not  only  within  the  State,  but  elsewhere  at 
the  South,  particularly  in  South  Carolina.  Many  of  these 
were  rashly  pushed  forward  by  men  of  no  experience,  and 
but  little  commercial  judgment;  the  roads  were  injudiciously 
laid  out,   and  have  been  badly  managed,  and,  of  course,  have 


ALABAMA.  547 

occasioned  disastrous  losses.  The  Savannah  and  Macon  road 
has,  however,  been  very  successful.  The  receipts  are  now  over 
$1,000,000  annually;  the  road  is  well  stocked,  is  out  of  debt, 
and  its  business  is  constantly  increasing ;  the  stock  is  above  par, 
and  the  stockholders  are  receiving  eight  per  cent,  dividends,  with 
a  handsome  surplus  on  hand.  It  has  been  always,  in  a  great 
degree,  under  the  management  of  Northern  men — was  engineered, 
and  is  still  worked  chiefly  by  Northern  men,  and  a  large  amount 
of  its  stock  is  owned  at  the  North.  I  am  told  that  most  of  the 
mechanics,  and  of  the  successful  merchants  and  tradesmen  of 
Savannah  came  originally  from  the  North,  or  are  the  sons  of 
Northern  men. 

Partly  by  rail  and  partly  by  rapid  stage-coaching  (the  coaches, 
horses  and  drivers  again  from  the  North),  I  crossed  the  State  in 
about  twenty-four  hours.  The  rail-road  is  since  entirely  com- 
pleted from  Savannah  to  Montgomery,  in  Alabama,  and  is  being 
extended  slowly  towards  the  Mississippi ;  of  course  with  the 
expectation  that  it  will  eventually  reach  the  Pacific,  and  thus 
make  Savannah  "the  gate  to  the  commerce  of  the  world."  Ship- 
masters will  hope  that,  when  either  it  or  its  rival  in  South  Caro- 
lina has  secured  that  honor,  they  will  succeed,  better  than  they 
yet  have  done,  in  removing  the  bars,  physical  and  legal,  by 
which  commerce  is  now  annoyed  in  its  endeavors  to  serve  them. 

At  Columbus,  I  spent  several  days.  It  is  the  largest  manu- 
facturing town,  south  of  Kichmond,  in  the  Slave  States.  It  is 
situated  at  the  falls,  and  the  bead  of  steamboat  navigation  of  the 
Chatahooche,  the  western  boundary  of  Georgia.  The  water- 
power  is  sufficient  to  drive  two  hundred  thousand  spindles,  with 
a  proportionate  number  of  looms.  There  are,  probably,  at 
present  from  fifteen  to  twenty  thousand  spindles  running.     The 


548  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

operatives  in  the  cotton-mills  are  said  to  be  mainly  "  Cracker 
girls"  (poor  whites  from  the. country),  who  earn,  in  good. times, 
by  piece-work,  from  $8  to  $12  a  month.  There  are,  besides  the 
cotton-mills,  one  woolen-mill,  one  paper-mill,  a  foundry,  a  cot- 
ton-gin factory,  a  machine-shop,  etc.  The  laborers  in  all  these 
are  mainly  whites,  and  they  are  in  such  a  condition  that,  if  tem- 
porarily thrown  out  of  employment,  great  numbers  of  them  are 
at  once  reduced  to  a  state  of  destitution,  and  are  dependent 
upon  credit  or  charity  for  their  daily  food.  Public  entertain- 
ments were  being  held  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  the  profits  to  be 
applied  to  the  relief  of  operatives  in  mills  which  had  been  stop- 
ped by  the  effects  of  a  late  flood  of  the  river.  Yet  Slavery 
is  constantly  boasted  to  be  a  perfect  safeguard  against  such  dis- 
-fcress. 

I  had  seen  in  no  place,  since  I  left  Washington,  so  much 
gambling,  intoxication,  and  cruel  treatment  of  servants  in  public, 
as  in  Columbus.  This,  possibly,  was  accidental;  but  I  must 
caution  persons,  traveling  for  health  or  pleasure,  to  avoid  stop- 
ping in  the  town.  The  hotel  in  which  I  lodged  was  disgustingly 
dirty ;  the  table  revolting ;  the  waiters  stupid,  inattentive,  and 
annoying.  It  was  the  stage-house  ;  but  I  was  informed  that  the 
other  public-house  was  no  better.  There  are  very  good  inns  at 
Macon,  and  at  Montgomery,  Alabama ;  and  it  will  be  best  for 
an  invalid  proceeding  from  Savannah  westward,  if  possible,  not 
to  spend  a  night  between  these  towns. 

I  should  add  that  I  met  with  much  courtesy  from  strangers, 
and  saw  as  much  real  hospitality  of  disposition  among  the  peo- 
ple near  Columbus,  as  anywhere  else  in  the  South.  I  was  much 
gratified  by  a  visit  to  the  garden  of  Mr.  Peabody,  a  horticulturist, 
who  has  succeeded  wonderfully  in  cultivating  strawberries  upon 


ALABAMA.  549 

a  poor,  sandy  soil,  in  a  climate  of  great  heat  and  dryness,  by 
a  thin  mulching  of  leaves. 

A  day's  journey  took  me  from  Columbus,  through  a  hilly  wil- 
derness, with  a  few  dreary  villages,  and  many  isolated  cotton 
farms,  with  comfortless  habitations  for  black  and  white  upon 
them,  to  Montgomery,  the  capital  of  Alabama. 

Montgomery  is  a  prosperous  town,  with  very  pleasant  sub- 
urbs, and  a  remarkably  enterprising  population,  among  which 
there  is  a  considerable  proportion  of  Northern  and  foreign-born 
business-men  and  mechanics. 

I  spent  a  week  here  very  pleasantly,  and  then  left  for  Mobile, 
on  the  steamboat  Fashion,  a  clean  and  well-ordered  boat,  with 
polite  and  obliging  officers.  We  were  two  days  and  a  half 
making  the  passage,  the  boat  stopping  at  almost  every  bluff  and 
landing  to  take  on  cotton,  until  she  had  a  freight  of  nineteen 
hundred  bales,  which  was  built  up  on  the  guards,  seven  or  eight 
tiers  in  hight,  and  until  it  reached  the  hurricane  deck.  The  boat 
was  thus  brought  so  deep  that  her  guards  were  in  the  water,  and 
the  ripple  of  the  river  constantly  washed  over  them.  There  are 
two  hundred  landings  on  the  Alabama  river,  and  three  hundred 
on  the  Bigby  (Tombeckbee  of  the  geographers),  at  which  the 
boats  advertise  to  call,  if  required,  for  passengers  or  freight. 
This,  of  course,  makes  the  passage  exceedingly  tedious. 

The  principal  town  at  which  we  landed  was  Selma,  a  thriving 
and  pleasant  place,  situated  upon  the  most  perfectly  level 
natural  plain  I  ever  saw.  In  one  corner  of  the  town,  while  ram- 
bling on  shore,  I  came  upon  a  tall,  ill-proportioned,  broken-win- 
dowed brick  barrack ;  it  had  no  grounds  about  it,  was  close 
upon  the  highway,  was  in  every  way  dirty,  neglected,  and  forlorn 
in  expression.     I  inquired  what  it  was,  and  was  informed,  the 


550  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

"  Young  Ladies'  College."  There  were  a  number  of  pretty 
private  gardens  in  the  town,  in  which  I  noticed  several  evergreen 
oaks,  the  first  I  had  seen  since  leaving  Savannah. 

At  Claiborne,  another  considerable  village  upon  the  river,  we 
landed,  at  nine  o'clock  on  a  Sunday  night.  It  is  situated  upon 
a  bluff,  a  hundred  and  fifty  feet  high,  with  a  nearly  perpendicu- 
lar bank,  upon  the  river.  The  boat  came  to  the  shore  at  the 
foot  of  a  plank  slide-way,  down  which  cotton  was  sent  to  it, 
from  a  warehouse  at  the  top. 

There  was  something  truly  Western  in  the  direct,  reckless 
way  in  which  the  boat  was  loaded.  A  strong  gang-plank 
being  placed  at  right  angles  to  the  slide-way,  a  bale  of  cotton 
was  let  slide  from  the  top,  and,  coming  down  with  fearful 
velocity,  on  striking  the  gang-plank,  it  would  rebound  up  and 
out  on  to  the  boat,  against  a  barricade  of  bales  previously  ar- 
ranged to  receive  it.  The  moment  it  struck  this  barricade,  it 
would  be  clashed  at  by  two  or  three  men,  and  jerked  out  of  the 
way,  and  others  would  roll  it  to  its  place  for  the  voyage, 
on  the  tiers  aft.  The  mate,  standing  near  the  bottom  of  the 
slide,  as  soon  as  the  men  had  removed  one  bale  to  what  he 
thought  a  safe  distance,  would  shout  to  those  aloft,  and  down 
would  come  another.  Not  unfrequently,  a  bale  would  not  strike 
fairly  on  its  end,  and  would  rebound  off,  diagonally,  overboard ; 
or  would  be  thrown  up  with  such  force  as  to  go  over  the  barri- 
cade, breaking  stanchions  and  railings,  and  scattering  the  pas- 
sengers on  the  berth  deck.  Negro  hands  were  sent  to  the  top 
of  the  bank,  to  roll  the  bales  to  the  side,  and  Irishmen  were 
kept  below  to  remove  them,  and  stow  them.  On  asking  the 
mate  (with  some  surmisings)  the  reason  of  this  arrangement,  he 


ALABAMA.  551 

"  The  niggers  are  worth  too  much  to  be  risked  here ;  if  the 
Paddies  are  knocked  overboard,  or  get  their  backs  broke,  nobody 
loses  anything!" 

The  boat  being  detained  the  greater  part  of  the  night,  and 
the  bounding  bales  making  too  much  noise  to  allow  me  to 
sleep,  I  ascended  the  bank  by  a  flight  of  two  hundred  steps, 
placed  by  the  side  of  the  slide-way,  and  took  a  walk  in  tho 
village.  In  the  principal  street,  I  came  upon  a  group  of,  seven 
negroes,  talking  in  lively,  pleasant  tones  :  presently,  one  of  them 
commenced  to  sing,  and  in  a  few  moments  all  the  others  joined 
in,  taking  different  parts,  singing  with  great  skill  and  taste — 
better  than  I  ever  heard  a  group  of  young  men  in  a  Northern 
village,  without  previous  arrangement,  but  much  as  I  have 
heard  a  strolling  party  of  young  soldiers,  or  a  company  of 
students,  or  apprentices,  in  the  streets  of  a  German  town,  at 
night.  After  concluding  the  song,  which  was  of  a  sentimental 
character,  and  probably  had  been  learned  at  a  concert  or  theatre, 
in  the  village,  they  continued  in  conversation,  till  one  of  them 
began  to  whistle :  in  a  few  moments  all  joined  in,  taking 
several  different  parts,  as  before,  and  making  a  peculiarly  plain- 
tive music.  Soon  after  this,  they  walked  all  together,  singing, 
and  talking  soberly,  by  turns,  slowly  away.  I  allowed  them 
to  pass  me,  but  kept  near  them,  until  they  reached  a  cabin, 
in  the  outskirts  of  the  village.  Stopping  near  this  a  few 
minutes,  two  of  them  danced  the  "juba,"  while  the  rest  whis- 
tled and  applauded.  After  some  further  chat,  one  said  to  the 
rest:  "Come,  gentlemen,  let's  go  in  and  see  the  ladies,"  opening 
the  door  of  the  cabin.  They  entered,  and  were  received  by 
three  negro  girls,  with  great  heartiness  ;  then  all  found  seats  on 
Wis,  and  stools,  and  chests,  around   a  great  wood  fire,  and 


552  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

when    I    passed   again,   in  a   few   minutes,   they   were   again 
singing. 

THE    MUSICAL    TALENT    OF   NEGKOES. 

The  love  of  music  which  characterizes  the  negro,  the  readiness 
with  which  he  acquires  skill  in  the  art,  his  power  of  memorizing 
and  improvising  music  is  most  marked  and  constant.  I  think, 
also,  that  sweet  musical  voices  are  more  common  with  the 
negro  than  Avith  the  white  race — certainly  than  with  the  white 
race  in  America.  I  have  frequently  been  startled  by  clear,  bell- 
like tones,  from  a  negro  woman  in  conversation,  while  walking 
the  streets  of  a  Southern  town,  and  have  listened  to  them  with 
a  thrill  of  pleasure.  A  gentleman  in  Savannah  told  me  that, 
in  the  morning  after  the  performance  of  an  opera  in  that  city, 
he  had  heard  more  than  one  negro,  who  could  in  no  way  have 
heard  it  before,  whistling  the  most  difficult  airs,  with  perfect  accu- 
racy. I  have  heard  ladies  say  that,  whenever  they  have  obtained 
any  new  and  choice  music,  almost  as  soon  as  they  had  learned 
it  themselves,  their  servants  would  have  caught  the  air,  and 
they  were  likely  to  hear  it  whistled  in  the  streets,  the  first  night 
they  were  out.  In  all  of  the  Southern  cities,  there  are  music 
bands,  composed  of  negroes,  often  of  great  excellence.  The  mili- 
tary parades  are  usually  accompanied  by  a  negro  brass  band. 

Dr.  Cartwright,  arguing  that  the  negro  is  a  race  of  inferior 
capabilities,  says  that  the  negro  does  not  understand  harmony  ; 
his  songs  are  mere  sounds,  without  sense  or  meaning.  My 
observations  are  of  but  little  value  upon  such  a  point,  as  I  have 
had  no  musical  education ;  but  they  would  lead  me  to  the  con- 
trary opinion.  The  common  plantation-negroes,  or  deck-hands 
of  the  steamboats — whose  minds  are   so    little  cultivated  that 


ALABAMA  553 

they  cannot  count  twenty — will  often,  in  rolling  cotton-bales,  or 
carrying  wood  on  board  the  boat,'  fall  to  singing,  each  taking  a 
different  part,  and  carrying  it  on  with  great  spirit  and  inde- 
pendence, and  in  perfect  harmony,  as  I  never  heard  singers,  who 
had  not  been  considerably  educated,  at  the  North. 

MATHEMATICAL    CAPACITY. 

Touching  the  intellectual  capacity  of  negroes  r  I  was 
dining  with  a  gentleman,  when  he  asked  the  waiter — a  lad  of 
eighteen — to  tell  him  what  the  time  was.  The  boy,  after  study- 
ing the  clock,  replied  incorrectly ;  and  the  gentleman  said  it  was 
impossible  for  him  to  make  the  simple  calculation  necessary. 
He  had  promised  to  give  him  a  dollar,  a  year  ago,  whenever  he 
could  tell  the  time  by  the  clock ;  had  taken  a  good  deal  of 
trouble  to  teach  him,  but  he  did  not  seem  to  make  any  progress. 
I  have  since  met  with  another  negro  boy,  having  the  same 
remarkable  inability — both  the  lads  being  intelligent,  and  learn- 
ing easily  in  other  respects  :  the  first  could  read.  I  doubt  if  it  is  a 
general  deficiency  of  the  race  ;  both  these  boys  had  marked  depres- 
sions where  phrenologists  locate  the  organ  of  calculation. 

A  gentleman,  whom  I  visited,  in  Montgomery,  had  a  car- 
penter, who  was  remarkable  for  his  mathematical  capacities. 
Without  having  had  any  instruction,  he  was  able  to  give  very 
close  and  accurate  estimates  for  the  quantity  of  all  descriptions 
of  lumber,  to  be  used  in  building  a  large  and  handsome  dwell- 
ing, of  the  time  to  be  employed  upon  it,  and  of  its  cost.  He 
was  an  excellent  workman ;  and,  when  not  occupied  with  work 
directly  for  his  master,  obtained  employment  of  others — making 
engagements,  and  taking  contracts  for  jobs,  without  being  re- 
quired to  consult  his  master.  He  had  been  purchased  for  two 
24 


554  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

thousand  dollars,  and  his  ordinary  wages  were  two  dollars  a 
'day.  He  earned  considerable  money  besides,  for  himself,  by 
overwork  at  his  trade,  and  still  more  in  another  way. 

SLAVE    HIGH    LIFE. 

He  was  a  good  violinist  and  dancer,  and,  two  nights  a  week, 
taught  a  negro  dancing-school,  from  which  he  received  two 
dollars  a  night,  which,  of  course,  he  spent  for  his  own  pleasure. 
During  the  winter,  the  negroes,  in  Montgomery,  have  their 
"  assemblies,"  or  dress  balls,  which  are  got  up  "  regardless  of 
expense,"  in  very  grand  style.  Tickets  are  advertised  to  these 
balls,  "admitting  one  gentleman  and  two  ladies,  $1 ;"  and 
"  Ladies  are  assured  that  they  may  rely  on  the  strictest  order 
and  propriety  being  observed."  Cards  of  invitation,  finely 
engraved  with  handsome  vignettes,  are  sent,  not  only  to  the 
fashionable  slaves,  but  to  some  of  the  more  esteemed  white 
people,  who,  however,  take  no  part,  except  as  lookers-on.  All 
the  fashionable  dances  are  executed ;  no  one  is  admitted,  except 
in  full  dress :  there  are  the  regular  masters  of  ceremonies,  floor 
committees,  etc. ;  and  a  grand  supper  always  forms  a  part  of  the 
entertainment. 

While  in  a  book-store,  in  Montgomery,  I  saw  a  negro  looking 
at  some  very  showy  London  valentines.  After  examining  the 
embossed  envelopes,  and  the  colored  engravings  of  hearts  and 
darts,  and  cupids  and  doves,  he  would  ask  the  clerk  to  read  the 
poetry,  and  listen  while  he  did  so,  with  the  air  of  a  profound 
critic.  I  heard  ten  dollars  mentioned  as  the  price  of  one  of 
them ;  and  I  presume  he  was  ready  to  pay  that  price,  if  ho 
could  find  an  adequate  expression  of  his  sentiment. 

My  friend   had   so  much  confidence  in   the  discretion  and 


ALABAMA.  555 

faithfulness  of  his  carpenter,  that  he  seldom  gave  him  any 
orders  or  directions.  To  enable  him  to  execute  some  business 
with  greater  celerity,  he;  one  day,  in  my  observation,  took  a 
horse  that  his  master  was  intending  to  use  himself.  When 
asked  why  he  did  so,  he  mentioned  the  object  he  had  in  view, 
and  said  :  "  I  thought  I  needed  him  more  than  you  did" — and 
was  not  reproved. 

On  visiting  a  piece  of  ground  that  his  master  owned,  out  of 
town,  we  found  him  engaged,  with  two  black  men  and  one 
white — a  native,  country  fellow — in  putting  up  a  fence.  The 
latter  was  acting  under  his  orders;  and,  upon  inquiry,  I  found 
that,  seeing  that  the  work  was  needed  to  be  done  immediately, 
he  had  hired  him,  as  well  as  the  two  blacks,  without  consulting 
his  master.  It  was  the  first  case  I  had  seen  of  a  white  man 
acting  under  the  orders  of  a  negro,  though  I  have  several  times 
since  seen  Irishmen  doing  so. 

This  gay  carpenter's  wife  was  a  woman  of  serious  sentiments, 
and  preferred  prayer-meetings  to  balls ;  so  they  did  not  agree 
very  well.  She  belonged  to  another  gentleman,  who  did  not 
live  in  the  town,  and  was  at  service  in  another  family  than  that 
with  which  her  husband  was  connected.  She  had  informed  her 
owner  that,  if  he  would  like  to  take  her  into  the  country  with 
him,  she  had  no  particular  objections  to  being  separated  from 
her  husband.     She  did  not  like  him  very  much — he  was   "  so 

gay-" 

NATURAL    AFFECTION    OF   NEGROES. 

It  is  frequently  remarked  by  Southerners,  in  palliation  of  the 
cruelty  of  separating  relatives,  that  the  affections  of  negroes  for 
one  another  are  very  slight.     I  have  been  told  by  more  than  one 


556  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

lady  that  she  was  sure  her  nurse  did  not  have  half  the  affection 
for  her  own  children  that  she  did  for  her  mistress's.  But  it  is  evi- 
dent that  this  loyalty  is  not  peculiar  to  the  "black  race.  Probahly 
there  are  many  white  people  in  Europe,  even  in  this  day,  who 
would  let  their  children's  lives  he  sacrificed  to  save  the  life  of  the 
son  of  their  sovereign.  Thejy  teach  this  as  a  duty,  and  use  the 
Bible  to  make  it  appear  so,  \ii  Prussia,  if  not  in  England. 

A  very  excellent  lady,  to  show  me  how  little  cruelty  there  was 
in  the  separation  of  husband  and  wife,  told  me  that  when  she 
lived  at  home,  on  her  father's  plantation,  in  South  Carolina,  he 
had  given  her  a  girl  for  a  dressing-maid.  This  girl,  after  a  time, 
married  a  man  on  the  plantation.  The  marriage  ceremony  was 
performed  by  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  according  to  the  prayer- 
book  form — the  parties,  of  course,  promising  to  cleave  together 
until  death  should  part  them.  A  year  later,  the  lady  herself 
was  to  be  married,  and  was  to  remove  with  her  husband  to  his 
residence  in  Alabama.  She  told  the  girl  she  could  do  as  she 
pleased — go  with  her  and  leave  her  husband,  or  remain  with  her 
husband  and  be  separated  from  her.  She  preferred  to  cleave  to 
her  mistress.  She  accordingly  parted  from  her  husband,  with 
some  expressions  of  regret  for  the  necessity,  but  with  no  appear- 
ance of  grief  or  sadness.  Neither  did  the  husband  complain. 
A  month  after  she  reached  her  new  residence  in  Alabama,  she 
found  a  new  husband;  and  it  was  supposed  that  her  former 
husband  had  suited  himself  with  a  new  woman.  She  had  now 
been  living  ten  years  in  Alabama,  and  had  several  children  ;  she 
was  expecting  soon  to  be  taken  with  her  mistress  on  a  visit  to 
the  old  plantation  in  South  Carolina,  and  laughed  as  she  spoke 
of  probably  meeting  her  old  husband  again. 

A  slave,  who  was  hired  (not  owned)  by  a  friend  of  mine  in 


ALABAMA.  557 

Savannah,  called  upon  him  one  morning  while  I  was  there,  to 
say  that  he  wished  to  marry  a  woman  in  the  evening,  and 
wanted  a  ticket  from  him  to  authorize  the  ceremony. 

"  I  thought  you  were  married,"  said  my  friend. 

"  Yes,  master,  but  that  woman  hab  leave  me,  and  go  'long 
wid  'nodder  man." 

"  Indeed !  Why,  you  had  several  children  by  her,  did  not 
you?" 

"  Yes,  master,  we  hab  thirteen,  but  now  she  gone  'long  wid 
'nodder  man." 

"  But  will  your  church  permit  you  to  marry  another  woman 
so  soon  ?" 

"  Yes,  master ;  I  tell  'em  de  woman  I  had  leave  me,  and  go 
.'long  wid  'nodder  man,  and  she  say  she  don't  mean  to  come 
back,  and  I  can't  be  'spected  to  lib  widout  any  woman  at  all,  so 
dey  say  dey  grant  me  de  divorce." 

A  pleasant  example  of  the  child-like  confidence  which  a  slave 
frequently  has  in  his'  sovereign,  when  he  is  a  good-hearted  and 
trustworthy  man,  occurred  to  me  at  a  hotel,  where  I  had  been 
waited  upon  for  several  days  by  an  unusually  good  servant. 
One  morning,  while  making  a  fire  for  me,  he  said — 

"Dey  say  Congress  is  going  to  be  brack  up  in  tree  weeks — 
I'se  glad  enough  o'  dat." 

"  Glad  of  it— why  so  V ' 

"  I'se  got  a  master  dah  ;  I'll  be  a  heap  glad  when  he's  come 
back." 

"You  want  to  see  him  again,  ehf 

"  Yes,  sar.  I  won't  stay  long  in  dis  place  wen  he  com,  nud- 
der.  I'll  hab  im  get  noder  place  for  me.  I  don'  like  dis  place, 
no  how ;  dis  place  don'  suit  me ;  never  saw  sich  a  place.     Pey 


558  Ot'R    SLAVE     STATES. 

keeps  me  up  most  all  night ;  I  haan  been  used  to  sich  treatem. 
Dey  haan  got  but  one  servant  for  all  dis  hall ;  dey  ought  to  hab 
two  at  de  least.  I'm  de  olest  servant  in  de  house ;  all  de  odder 
ole  servant  is  gone." 

"  And  they  have  got  Irishmen  in  then-  places." 

"  Yes  !  and  what  kine  of  servant  is  dey  ?  Ha  !  all  de  Irish 
men  dat  ever  I  see  haden  so  much  sense  in  dar  heds  as  I  could 
carry  in  de  palm  of  my  ban.  I  was  de  head  waiter  allers  in  my 
master's  house  till  my  brudder  grew  up,  and  I  learned  him ;  he's 
de  head  waiter  now.  And  dis  heah  ant  no  kine  of  place  for  my 
sort;  I  don'  stay  here  no  longer  wen  my  master  come  back." 

A  few  mornings  after  this,  he  did  not  come  into  my  room,  as 
usual ;  I  was  out  during  the  forenoon ;  when  I  returned,  he  came 
to  me,  and  said : 

"You  must  "excuse  me  dat  I  din't  be  heah  to  brush  your 
clothes  dis  mornin',  sar;  dey  had  me  in  de  guard-house,  last 
night." 

"Had  you  in  the  guard-house — what  for?" 

"Because  I  was  out  widout  a  pass.  You  see  I  don'  sleep 
heah,  sar,  and  I  was  jes  gwine  down  to  de  boat,  'bout  two  o'clock, 
and  dey  took  me,  and  put  me  in  de  guard-house." 

"And  what  kind  of  accommodations  do  tbey  give  you  at  the 
guard-house  ?" 

"Why,  dey  makes  me  pay  a  dollar  for  'em.  I  offered  dem 
two  dollars  las'  night,  if  dey  let  me  go.  I  tort  dat's  de  way  dey 
do ;  make  you  pay  two  dollar,  or  else  dey  gives  you  a  right 
smart  wbippin' ;  but  dey  didn' — I  don'  know  why.  I  tell  you, 
sar,  I  nebber  felt  so  mortify  in  all  my  life,  as  wen  dey  lets  me 
out  de  guard-house  dis  mornin',  rigbt  before  all  de  people  in  dat 
ar  market-place." 


ALABAMA.  559 

"  Well,  I  suppose  it  was  your  own  fault." 

11  No,  sar  !  not  my  own  fault  'tall,  sar;  dey  ought  to  gib  me  a 
pass;  why  not?  dey  knows  I's  a  married  man.  Do  dey  tink  I 
is  gwine  to  sleep  heah  wid  dese  nasty  niggers  ?  No,  sar !  I  lie 
out  dah  on  de  floor  in  de  passage,  and  catch  my  deft'  of  cold  first. 
I  aint  been  use  to  sich  treatem.  I's  got  a  master.  My  master's 
member  Congress.  Wen  dat  broks  up,  he  mus  fine  me  nodder 
place  mighty  quick.  I  don'  stay  heah.  I's  always  been  a  fami- 
ly servant.  You  see,  sar,  I  aint  use  to  such  treatem.  Nebber 
was  sole  yet  in  all  my  life.  My  missis'  fader  was  worf  four  hun- 
dred tousand  dollar,  and  we  had  two  plantation.  Nebber  was 
in  a  field  in  my  life — allers  was  in  de  house  ebber  since  I  was  a 
little  chile.  I  was  a  kine  of  pet  boy,  you  see,  master.  I  allers 
wait  on  my  masser  myself  till  my  little  brudder  got  big  enough ; 
den  I  want  to  go  'way.  Oh,  I'se  a  wild  chilej*you  see,  sar,  and 
I  want  to  clear  out  and  hab  some  fun  to  myself.  I's  a  kine  of 
favorite  allers  to  my  mistress.  She  'ould  do  anything  for  me. 
She  wanted  to  learn  me  to  read,  but  I'se  too  wild.  She  would 
gib  me  a  first-rate  education,  I  'spose,  only  I's  so  wild  I 
wouldn'." 

"Can't  you  read  at  all!" 

"  Well,  I  ken  read  some,  but  not  very  well.  Dat  is,  you  see, 
master,  dere's  some  of  de  letters  I  can't  read,  not  all  on  'em  I 
can't;  no  sar;  but  I  ken  read  some." 

THE    CITIZENS. 

There*  were  about  one  hundred  passengers  on  the  Fashion, 
besides  a  number  of  poor  people  and  negroes  on  the  lower  deck. 
They  were,  generally,  cotton-planters,  going  to  Mobile  on  busi- 
ness, or  emigrants  bound  to  Texas  or  Arkansas.    They  were  usual- 


560  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

ly  well  dressed,  but  were  a  rough,  coarse  style  of  people,  drinking 
a  great  deal,  and  most  of  the  time  under  a  little  alcoholic  excite- 
ment. Not  sociable,  except  when  the  topics  of  cotton,  land,  and 
negroes,  were  started ;  interested,  however,  in  talk  about  theatres 
and  the  turf;  very  profane ;  often  showing  the  handles  of  con- 
cealed weapons  about  their  persons,  but  not  quarrelsome,  avoid- 
ing disputes  and  altercations,  and  respectful  to  one  another  in 
forms  of  words  ;  very  ill-informed,  except  on  plantation  business  ; 
their  language  very  ungrammatical,  idiomatic,  and  extravagant. 
Their  grand  characteristics — simplicity  of  motive,  vague,  shallow, 
and  purely  objective  habits  of  thought ;  spontaneity  and  truth- 
fulness of  utterance,  and  bold,  self-reliant  movement. 

With  all  their  individual  independence,  I  soon  could  per 
ceive  a  very  great  homogeneousness  of  character,  by  which 
they  were  distinguishable  from  any  other  people  with  whom 
I  had  before  been  thrown  in  contact ;  and  I  began  to  study 
it  with  interest,  as  the  Anglo-Saxon  development  of  the  South- 
west. 

I  found  that,  more  than  any  people  I  had  ever  seen,  they  were 
unrateable  by  dress,  taste,  forms,  and  expenditures.  I  was  per 
plexed  by  finding,  apparently  united  in  the  same  individual,  the 
self-possession  and  confidence  of  the  well  equipped  gentleman, 
and  the  coarseness  and  low  tastes  of  the  uncivilized  boor — frank- 
ness and  reserve,  recklessness  and  self  restraint,  extravagance, 
and  penuriousness. 

There  was  one  man,  who  "  lived,  when  he  was  to  home,"  as  he 
told  me,  "in  the  Red  River  Country,"  in  the  northeastern  part  of 
Texas,  having  emigrated  thither  from  Alabama,  some  years  before. 
He  was  a  tall,  thin,  awkward  person,  and  wore  a  suit  of  clothes 
(probably  bought  "ready-made")  which  would  have  better  suited 


ALABAMA.  561 

a  short,  fat  figure.  Under  his  waistcoat  he  carried  a  largo 
knife,  with  the  hilt  generally  protruding  at  the  breast.  He 
had  been  with  his  family  to  his  former  home,  to  do  a  little  busi- 
ness, and  visit  his  relatives,  and  was  now  returning  to  his  plan- 
tation. His  wife  was  a  pale  and  harassed  looking  woman ;  and 
he  scarce  ever  paid  her  the  smallest  attention,  not  even  sitting 
near  her  at  the  public  table.  Of  his  children,  however,  he  seemed 
very  fond ;  and  they  had  a  negro  servant  in  attendance  upon 
them,  whom  he  was  constantly  scolding  and  threatening.  Hav- 
ing been  from  home  for  sis  weeks,  his  impatience  to  return  was 
very  great,  and  was  constantly  aggravated  by  the  frequent  and 
long  continued  stoppages  of  the  boat.  "Time's  money,  time's 
money !"  he  would  be  constantly  saying,  while  we  were  taking 
on  cotton,  "  time 's  worth  more  'n  money  to  me  now ;  a  hundred 
per  cent,  more,  'cause  I  left  my  niggers  all  alone,  not  a  dam 
white  man  within  four  mile  on  'em." 

I  asked  how  many  negroes  he  had. 

"  I've  got  twenty  on  'em  to  home,  and  thar  they  ar !  and  thar 
they  ar !  and  thar  aint  a  dam  soul  of  a  white  fellow  within  four 
mile  on  'em." 

"  They  are  picking  cotton,  I  suppose  ?" 

"No,  I  got  through  pickin'  fore  I  left." 

"  What  work  have  they  to  do,  then,  now?" 

"  I  set  em  to  clairin',  but  they  aint  doin'  a  dam  thing — not  a 
dam  thing,  they  aint ;  that's  wat  they  are  doin',  that  is — not  a 
dam  thing.  I  know  that,  as  well  as  you  do.  That's  the  reason 
time 's  an  object.  I  told  the  capting  so  wen  I  came  a  board : 
'  says  I,  capting,  says  I,  time  is  in  the  objective  case  with  me.' 
No,  sir,  they  aint  doin'  a  dam  solitary  thing ;  that's  Avhat  they 

are  up  to.     I  know  that  as  well  as  anybody ;  I  do.     But  I'll 

24* 


662  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

make  it  up,  I'll  make  it  up,  when  I  get  thar,  now  you'd  better 
believe." 

Once,  when  a  lot  of  cotton,  baled  with  unusual  neatness,  was 
coming  on  board,  and  some  doubt  had  been  expressed  as  to  the 
economy  of  the  method  of  baling,  he  said  very  loudly : 

"Well,  now,  I'd  be  willin'  to  bet  my  salvation,  that  them 
thar's  the  heaviest  bales  that's  come  on  to  this  boat." 

"I'll  bet  you  a  hundred  dollars  of  it,"  answered  one. 

"  Well,  if  I  was  in  the  habit  of  bettin',  I'd  do  it.  I  aint  a 
bettin'  man. '  But  I  am  a  cotton  man,  I  am,  and  I  don't  car 
who  knows  it.  I  know  cotton,  I  do.  I'm  dam  if  I  know  any- 
thin'  but  cotton.  I  ought  to  know  cotton,  I  had.  I've  been  at 
it  ever  sin'  I  was  a  chile." 

"  Stranger,"  he  asked  me  once,  "  did  you  ever  come  up  on  the 
Leweezay?  She's  a  right  smart,  pretty  boat,  she  is,  the  Le- 
weezay ;  the  best  I  ever  see  on  the  Alabamy  river.  They 
wanted  me  to  wait  and  come  down  on  her,  but  I  told  'em  time 
was  in  the  objective  case  to  me.  She  is  a  right  pretty  boat,  and 
her  capting's  a  high-tone  gentleman ;  haint  no  objections  to  find 
with  him — he's  a  high-tone  gentleman,  that's  what  he  is.  But 
the  pilot — well,  damn  him  !  He  run  her  right  out  of  the  river, 
up  into  the  woods — didn't  run  her  in  the  river,  at  all.  When  I 
go  aboard  a  steam-boat,  I  like  to  keep  in  the  river,  somewrar ; 
but  that  pilot,  he  took  her  right  up  into  the  woods.  It  was  just 
clairin'  land.  Clairin'  land,  and  playin'  hell  ginerally,  all  night ; 
not  follering  the  river  at  all.  I  believe  he  was  drunk.  He  must 
have  been  drunk,  for  I  could  keep  a  boat  in  the  river  myself. 
I'll  never  go  in  a  boat  where  the  pilot's  drunk  all  the  time.  I 
take  a  glass  too  much  myself,  sometimes ;  but  I  don't  hold  two 
hundred  lives  in  the  holler  of  my  hand.     I  was  in  my  berth,  and 


ALABAMA.  563 

he  run  her  straight  out  of  the  river,  slap  up  into  the  furest.  It 
•threw  me  clean  out  of  my  berth,  out  onter  the  floor ;  I  didn't 
sleep  any  more  while  I  was  aboard.  The  Leweezay's  a  right 
smart,  pretty  little  boat,  and  her  capting's  a  high-tone  gentle- 
man. They  hev  good  livin'  aboard  of  her,  too.  Haan't  no 
objections  on  that  score ;  weddin'  fixins  all  the  time ;  but  I 
won't  go  in  a  boat  war  the  pilot's  drunk.  I  set  some  vally  on 
the  life  of  two  hundred  souls.  They  wanted  to  hev  me  come 
down  on  her,  but  I  told  'em  time  was  in  the  objective  case." 

There  were  three  young  negroes,  carried  by  another  Texan, 
on  the  deck,  outside  the  cabin.  I  don't  know  why  they  were 
not  allowed  to  be  with  the  other  emigrant  slaves,  on  the  lower 
deck,  unless  the  owner  was  afraid  of  their  trying  to  get  away, 
and  had  no  handcuffs  small  enough  for  them.  They  were  boys ; 
the  oldest  twelve  or  fourteen  years  old,  the  youngest  not  more 
than  seven.  They  had  evidently  been  bought  lately  by  their 
present  owner,  and  probably  had  just  been  taken  from  their 
parents.  They  lay  on  the  deck  and  slept,  with  no  bed  but  the 
passengers'  luggage,  and  no  cover  but  a  single  blanket  for  each. 
Early  one  morning,  after  a  very  stormy  night,  when  they  must 
have  suffered  much  from  the  driving  rain  and  cold,  I  saw  their 
owner  with  a  glass  of  spirits,  giving  each  a  few  swallows  from  it. 
The  older  ones  smacked  their  lips,  and  said,  "  Tank  'ou,  massa ;" 
but  the  little  one  couldn't  drink  it,  and  cried  aloud,  when  he  was 
forced  to.  The  older  ones  were  very  playful  and  quarrelsome, 
and  continually  teasing  the  younger,  who  seemed  very  sad,  or 
homesick  and  sulky.  He  would  get  very  angry  at  their  mis- 
chievous fun,  and  sometimes  strike  them.  He  would  then  be 
driven  into  a  corner,  where  he  would  lie  on  his  back,  and  kick  at 
them  in  a  perfect  frenzy  of  anger  and  grief.     The  two  boys 


564  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

would  continue  to  laugh  at  him,  and  frequently  the  passengers 
would  stand  about,  and  be  amused  by  it.  Once,  when  they  had 
plagued  him  in  this  way  for  some  time,  be  jumped  up  on  to  the 
cotton-bales,  and  made  as  if  he  would  have  plunged  overboard. 
One  of  the  older  boys  caught  him  by  the  ankle,  and  held  him  till 
his  master  came  and  hauled  him  in,  and  gave  him  a  severe  flog- 
ging with  a  rope's  end.  A  number  of  passengers  collected  about 
them,  and  I  heard  several  say,  "  That's  what  he  wants."  Eed 
River  said  to  me,  "  I've  been  a  watchin'  that  ar  boy,  and  I  see 
what's  the  matter  with  him;  he's  got  the  devil  in  him  right  bad, 
and  he'll  hev  to  take  a  right  many  of  them  warmins  before  it'll 
be  got  out." 

The  crew  of  the  boat,  as  I  have  intimated,  was  composed 
partly  of  Irishmen,  and  partly  of  negroes  ;  the  latter  were  slaves, 
and  were  hired  of  their  owners  at  $40  a  month — the  same  wages 
paid  to  the  Irishmen.  A  dollar  of  their  wages  was  given  to 
the  negroes  themselves,  for  each  Sunday  they  were  on  the  pas- 
sage. So  far  as  convenient,  they  were  kept  at  work  separately 
from  the  white  hands  ;  they  were  also  messed  separately.  On 
Sunday  I  observed  them  dining  in  a  group,  on  the  cotton-bales. 
The  food,  which  was  given  to  them  in  tubs,  from  the  kitchen, 
was  various  and  abundant,  consisting  of  bean-porridge,  bacon, 
corn  bread,  ship's  biscuit,  potatoes,  duff  (pudding),  and  gravy. 
There  was  one  knife  used  only,  among  ten  of  them ;  the  bacon  was 
cut  and  torn  into  shares ;  splinters  of  the  bone  and  of  fire-wood 
were  used  for  forks ;  the  porridge  was  passed  from  one  to 
another,  and  drank  out  of  the  tub;  but  though  excessively  dirty 
and  beast-like  in  their  appearance  and  manners,  they  were  good- 
natured  and  jocose  as  usual. 

"  Heah !  you  Bill,"  said  one  to  another,  who  was  on  a  higher 


ALABAMA.  565 

tier  of  cotton,  "  pass  down  de  dessart.  You !  up  dar  on  de  hill ; 
de  dessart!  Augh!  don't  you  know  what  de  dessart  be  ?  De 
dufr,  you  fool." 

"Does  any  of  de  gemmen  want  some  o'  dese  potatum?"  asked 
another  ;  and  no  answer  being  given,  he  turned  the  tub  full  of 
potatoes  overboard,  without  any  hesitation.  It  was  evident  he 
had  never  had  to  think  on  one  day  how  he  should  be  able  to 
live  the  next. 

Whenever  we  landed  at  night  or  on  Sunday,  for  wood  or  cot- 
ton, there  would  be  many  negroes  come  on  board  from  the 
neighboring  plantations,  to  sell  eggs  to  the  steward. 

Sunday  was  observed  by  the  discontinuance  of  public  gambling 
in  the  cabin,  and  in  no  other  way.  At  midnight  gambling  was 
resumed,  and  during  the  whole  passage  was  never  at  any  other 
time  discontinued,  night  or  day,  so  far  as  I  saw.  There  were 
three  men  that  seemed  to  be  professional  sharpers,  and  who 
probably  played  into  each  other's  hands.  One  young  man  lost 
all  the  money  he  had  with  him — several  hundred  dollars. 


Mobile,  in  its  central,  business  part,  is  very  compactly  built, 
dirty,  and  noisy,  with  little  elegance,  or  evidence  of  taste  or 
public  spirit,  in  its  people.  A  small,  central,  open  square — the 
only  public  ground  that  I  saw — was  used  as  a  horse  and  hog 
pasture,  and  clothes  drying-yard.  Out  of  the  busier  quarter, 
there  is  a  good  deal  of  the  appearance  of  a  thriving  New  Eng- 
land village — almost  all  the  dwelling-houses  having  plots  of 
ground  enclosed  around  them,  planted  with  trees  and  shrubs. 
The  finest  trees  are  the  magnolia  and  live  oak ;  and  the  most 
valuable  shrub  is  the  Cherokee  rose,  which  is  much  used  for 


566  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

hedges  and  screens.  It  is  evergreen,  and  its  leaves  are  glossy 
and  beautiful  at  all  seasons,  and  in  March  it  blooms  profusely. 
There  is  an  abundance,  also,  of  the  Cape  jessamine.  It  is  as 
beautiful  as  a  camelia ;  and,  when  in  blossom,  scents  the  whole 
air  with  a  most  delicate  and  delicious  fragrance.  At  a  market- 
garden,  near  the  town  which  I  visited,  I  found  most  of  the 
best  Northern  and  Belgian  pears  fruiting  well,  and  apparently 
healthy,  and  well-suited  in  climate,  on  quince-stocks.  Figs  are 
abundant,  and  bananas  and  oranges  are  said  to  be  grown  with 
some  care,  and  slight  winter  protection. 

The  Battle  House,  kept  by  Boston  men,  with  Irish  servants, 
I  found  an  excellent  hotel ;  but  with  higher  charges  than  I  had 
ever  paid  before.  Prices,  generally,  in  Mobile,  range  very  high. 
There  are  large  numbers  of  foreign  merchants  in  the  popu- 
lation ;  but  a  great  deficiency  of  tradesmen  and  mechanics.  ! 

While  I  was  at  Montgomery,  my  hat  was  one  day  taken 
from  the  dining-room,  at  dinner-time,  by  some  one  who  left, 
in  its  place,  for  me,  a  very  battered  and  greasy  substitute, 
which  I  could  not  wear,  if  I  had  chosen  to.  I  asked  the  land- 
lord what  I  should  do  to  effect  a  reexchange :  "  Be  before 
him,  to-morrow."  Following  this  cool  advice,  and,  in  the  mean 
time,  wearing  a  cap,  I  obtained  my  hat  the  next  day ;  but  so 
ill  used,  that  I  should  not  have  known  it,  but  for  Mr.  Beebe's 
name,  stamped  within  it.  Not  succeeding  in  fitting  myself 
with  a  new  hat,  I  desired  to  have  my  old  one  pressed,  when  in 
Mobile  ;  but  I  could  not  find  a  working  hatter  in  the  place, 
though  it  boasts  a  population  of  thirty  thousand  souls.  Finally, 
a  hat-dealer,  a  German  Jew,  I  think  he  was,  with  whom  I  had 
left  it  while  looking  further,  returned  it  to  me,  with  a  charge 
of  one  dollar,  for  brushing  it — the  benefit  of  which  brushing  I 


ALABAMA.  567 

was  unable,  in  the  least,  to  perceive.  A  friend  informed  me 
that  he  found  it  cheaper  to  have  all  his  furniture  and  clothing 
made  for  him,  in  New  York,  to  order,  when  he  needed  any, 
and  sent  on  by  express,  than  to  get  it  in  Mobile. 

The  great  abundance  of  the  best  timber  for  the  purpose,  in 
the  United  States,  growing  in  the  vicinity  of  the  town,  has 
lately  induced  some  persons  to  attempt  ship-building  at  Mobile. 
The  mechanics  employed  are  mainly  from  the  North. 

The  great  business  of  the  town  is  the  transfer  of  cotton,  from 
the  producer  to  the  manufacturer,  from  the  wagon  and  the 
steam-boat  to  the  sea-going  ship.  Like  all  the  other  cotton- 
ports,  Mobile  labors  under  the  disadvantage  of  a  shallow  harbor. 
At  the  wharves,  there  were  only  a  few  small  craft  and  steam- 
boats. All  large  sea-going  vessels  lie  some  thirty  miles  below, 
and  their  freights  are  transhipped  in  lighters. 

There  appears  to  be  a  good  deal  of  wealth  and  luxury,  as 
well  as  senseless  extravagance,  in  the  town.  English  merchants 
affect  the  character  of  the  society,  considerably ;  some  very 
favorably — some,  very  much  otherwise.  Many  of  them  own 
slaves,  and,  probably,  all  employ  them ;  but  Slavery  seems  to  be 
of  more  value  to  them  from  the  amusement  it  affords,  than  in 
any  other  way.  "  So-and-so  advertises  '  a  valuable  drayman, 
and  a  good  blacksmith  and  horse-shoer,  for  sale,  on  reasonable 
terms ;'  an  acclimated  double-entry  book-keeper,  kind  in  harness, 
is  what  I  want,"  said  one;  "those  Virginia  patriarchs  haven't 
any  enterprise,  or  they'd  send  on  a  stock  of  such  goods  every 
spring,  to  be  kept  over  through  the  fever,  so  they  could  warrant 
them." 

"I  don't  .know  where  you'll  find  one,"  replied  another;  "but 
if  you  are  wanting  a  private  chaplain,  there's  one  I  have  heard, 


568  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 


street,  several  times,  that  could  probably  be  bought 


for  a  fair  price ;  and  I  will  warrant  him  sound  enough  in  wind, 
if  not  in  doctrine." 

"  I  wouldn't  care  for  his  doctrine,  if  I  bought  him ;  I  don't 
care  how  black  he  is,  feed  him  right,  and,  in  a  month,  he  will  be 
as  orthodox  as  an  archbishop." 

MOBILE    TO   NEW    ORLEANS. 

The  steam-boat  by  which  I  made  the  passage  along  the  north 
shore  of  the  Mexican  Gulf  to  New  Orleans,  was  New  York  built, 
and  owned  by  a  New-Yorker ;  and  the  Northern  usage  of  selling 
passage  tickets,  to  be  returned  on  leaving  the  boat,  was  retained 
upon  it.  I  was  sitting  near  a  group  of  Texans  and  emigrating 
planters,  when  a  waiter  passed  along,  crying  the  usual  request, 
that  passengers  who  had  not  obtained  tickets,  would  call  at  the 
captain's  office  for  that  purpose.  "What's  that?  What's  that?" 
they  shouted ;  "  What  did  he  mean  ?  What  is  it  ?"  "  Why,  it's 
a  dun,"  said  one.  "  Damned  if  'taint,"  continued  one  and 
another ;  "  he  is  dunnin'  on  us,  sure,"  and  some  started  from 
the  seats,  as  if  they  thought  it  insulting.  "  Well,  it's  the  first 
time  I  ever  was  dunned  by  a  nigger,  I'll  swar,"  said  one.  This 
seemed  to  place  it  in  a  humorous  aspect ;  and,  after  a  hearty 
laugh,  they  resumed  their  discussion  of  the  advantages  offered  to 
emigrants  in  different  parts  of  Texas,  and  elsewhere. 

A  party  of  very  fashionably-dressed  and  gay,  vulgar  people, 
were  placed  near  me  at  the  dinner-table ;  opposite,  a  stout, 
strong,  rough  and  grim-looking  Texan,  and  his  quiet,  amiable 
wife.  There  was  an  unusual  number  of  passengers,  and  conse- 
quently a  great  deficiency  of  waiters,  and  the  only  one  in  our 
vicinity  had  been  entirely  engaged  with  the  fashionable  party ; 


ALABAMA.  569 

their  plates  had  all  been  changed,  and  he  had  opened  two  or 
three  bottles  of  wine  for  them,  without  paying  any  regard  to  the 
rest  of  us.  At  length  the  Texan,  who  had  been  holding  a  plate 
ready  to  hand  to  the  waiter,  and  following  his  motions  for  a 
long  time,  with  an  eye  full  of  hunger  and  disgust,  as  he  was 
again  dashing  off  to  execute  an  order,  shouted,  with  a  voice  loud 
enough  to  be  heard  the  length  of  the  boat,  while  he  looked  defi- 
antly at  the  small,  moustached  person  opposite,  who  had  given 
the  order,  "  Boy  /"  "  Sir,"  said  the  negro,  turning  at  once 
"Give  us  something  to  eat  here!  damned  if  I — "  "Hush' 
said  his  wife,  clapping  her  hand  on  his  mouth.  "  Well,  if  — ' 
"Hush,  my  dear,  hush,"  said  his  wife,  again  putting  ner  hand 
across  his  mouth,  but  joining  in  the  universal  smile.  The  fash- 
ionable people  did  not  call  upon  the  waiter  again  till  we  all  had 
got  "  something  to  eat." 

There  was  a  young  man  on  the  boat  who  had  been  a  passen- 
ger with  me  in  coming  down  the  river.  He  was  bound  for 
Texas ;  and  while  on  board  the  Fashion  I  had  heard  him  saying 
that  he  had  met  with  "  a  right  smart  bad  streak  of  luck"  on  his 
way,  having  lost  a  valuable  negro.  "  I  thought  you  were  going 
on  with  those  men  to  Texas,  the  other  day,"  said  I. 

"  No,"  he  replied,  "  I  left  my  sister  in  Mobile,  when  I  went 
back  after  my  nigger,  and  when  I  came  down  again,  I  found 
that  she  had  found  an  old  acquaintance  there,  and  they  had  con- 
cluded to  get  married ;  so  I  staid  to  se  i  the  wedding." 

"Bather  quick  work." 

"Well,  I  reckon  they'd  both  thought  about  it  when  they 
knew  each  other  before ;  but  I  didn't  know  it,  and  it  kind  o' 
took  me  by  surprise.  So  my  other  sister,  she  concluded  Ann 
had  done  so  well  stopping  in  Mobile,  she'd  stop  and  keep  com 


570  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

pany  with  her  a  spell ;  and  so  I've  got  to  go  'long  alone.  Makes 
me  feel  kind  o'  lonesome — losing  that  nigger  too." 

"  Did  you  say  that  you  went  back  after  the  nigger  ?  I 
thought  he  died  ?" 

"  Well,  you  see  I  had  brought  him  along  as  far  as  Mobile,  and 
he  got  away  from  me  there,  and  slipped  aboard  a  steam-boat 
going  back,  and  hid  himself.  I  found  out  that  he  was  aboard  of 
her  pretty  soon  after  she  got  off,  and  I  sent  telegraphic  dis- 
patches to  several  places  along  up  the  river,  to  the  captain,  to 
put  him  in  a  jail,  asbore,  for  me.  I  know  he  got  one  of  them  at 
Cahawba,  but  be  didn't  mind  it  till  he  got  to  Montgomery. 
Well,  tbe  nigger  didn't  have  any  attention  paid  to  him.  They 
just  put  him  in  irons ;  likely  enough  he  didn't  get  much  to  eat, 
or  have  anything  to  cover  himself,  and  he  took  cold,  and  got 
sick — got  pneumonia — and  when  they  got  to  Montgomery,  they 
made  him  walk  up  to  the  jail,  and  there  wan't  no  fire,  and 
nothin'  to  lie  on,  nor  nothin'  for  him  in  the  jail,  and  it  made 
quick  work  with  him.  Before  I  could  get  up  there  he  was  dead. 
I  see  an  attorney  here  to  Mobile,  and  he  offered  to  take  the  case, 
and  prosecute  tbe  captain;  and  he  says  if  he  don't  recover  every 
red  cent  the  man's  worth,  he  wont  ask  me  for  a  fee.  It  comes 
kinder  hard  on  me.  I  bought  the  nigger  up,  counting  I  should 
make  a  speculation  on  him ;  reckoned  I'd  take  him  to  Texas  if 
I  couldn't  turn  him  to  good  advantage  at  Mobile.  As  niggers 
is  goin'  here  now,  I  expect  'twas  a  dead  loss  of  eight  hundred 
dollars,  right  out  of  pocket." 

There  were  a  large  number  of  steerage  passengers  occupying 
the  main  deck,  forward  of  the  shaft.  Many  of  them  were  Irish, 
late  immigrants,  but  the  large  majority  were  slaves,  going  on  to 
New  Orleans  to  be  sold,  or  moving  with  their  masters  to  Texas. 


ALABAMA.  571 

There  was  a  fiddle  or  two  among  them,  and  they  were  very 
merry,  dancing  and  singing.  A  few,  however,  refused  to  join  in 
the  amusement,  and  looked  very  disconsolate.  A  large  propor- 
tion of  them  were  boys  and  girls,  under  twenty  years  of  age. 

On  the  forecastle-deck  there  was  a  party  of  emigrants,  moving 
with  wagons.  There  were  three  men,  a  father  and  his  two  sons, 
or  sons-in-law,  with  their  families,  including  a  dozen  or  more 
women  and  children.  They  had  two  wagons,  covered  with 
calico  and  bed-ticks,  supported  by  hoops,  in  which  they  carried 
their  furniture  and  stores,  and  in  which  they  also  slept  at  night, 
the  women  in  one,  and  the  men  in  the  other.  They  had  six 
horses,  two  mules,  and  two  pair  of  cattle  with  them.  I  asked 
the  old  man  why  he  had  taken  his  cattle  along  with  him,  when 
he  was  going  so  far  by  sea,  and  found  that  he  had  informed  him- 
self accurately  of  what  it  would  cost  him  to  hire  or  buy  cattle  at 
Galveston ;  and  that  taking  into  account  the  probable  delay  he 
would  experience  in  looking  for  them  there,  he  had  calculated 
that  he  could  afford  to  pay  the  freight  on  them,  to  have  them 
with  him,  to  go  on  at  once  into  the  country  on  his  arrival,  rather 
than  to  sell  them  at  Mobile. 

"  But,"  said  he,  "  there  was  one  thing  I  didn't  cakulate  on, 
and  I  don't  understand  it;  the  cap  ting  cherged  me  two  dollars 
and  a  half  for  '  wherfage.'  I  don't  know  what  that  means,  do 
you  1  I  want  to  know,  because  I  don't  car'  to  be  imposed  upon 
by  nobody.  I  paid  it  without  sayin'  a  word,  'cause  I  never 
traveled  on  the  water  before ;  next  time  I  do,  I  shall  be 
more  sassy."  I  asked  where  he  was  going.  "  Didn't  know 
much  about  it,"  he  said,  "  but  reckoned  he  could  find  a  place 
where  there  was  a  good  range,  and  plenty  of  game.  If 
'twas  as  good  a  range  (pasture)  as  'twas  to  Alabama  when  he 


572  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

first  came  there,  he'd  be  satisfied."  After  he'd  got  his  family 
safe  through  acclimating  this  time,  he  reckoned  he  shouldn't 
move  again.  He  had  moved  about  a  good  deal  in  his  life. 
There  was  his  littlest  boy,  he  said,  looking  kindly  at  a  poor,  thin, 
blue-faced  little  child — he  reckoned  they'd  be  apt  to  leave  him ; 
he  had  got  Iropsical,  and  was  of  mighty  weak  constitution, 
nat'rally ;  'twouldn't  take  much  to  carry  him  off,  and,  of  course, 
a  family  must  be  exposed  a  good  deal,  moving  so  this  time  of 
year.  They  should  try  to  find  some  heavy  timbered  land — good 
land,  and  go  to  clearing ;  didn't  calculate  to  make  any  crops  the 
first  year — didn't  calculate  on  it,  though  perhaps  they  might  if 
they  had  good  luck.  They  had  come  from  an  eastern  county  of 
Alabama.  Had  sold  out  his  farm  for  two  dollars  an  acre ;  best 
land  in  the  district  was  worth  four ;  land  was  naturally  kind  of 
thin,  and  now  'twas  pretty  much  all  worn  out  there.  He  had 
moved  first  from  North  Carolina,  with  his  father.  They  never 
made  anything  to  sell  but  cotton ;  made  corn  for  their  own  use. 
Never  had  any  negroes  ;  reckoned  he'd  done  about  as  well  as  if 
he  had  had  them  ;  reckoned  a  little  better  on  the  whole.  No, 
he  should  not  work  negroes  in  Texas.  "  Niggers  is  so  kerless, 
and  want  so  much  lookin'  arter ;  they  is  so  monstrous  lazy ; 
they  won't  do  no  work,  you  know,  less  you  are  clus  to  'em 
all  the  time,  and  I  don't  feel  like  it.  I  couldn't,  at  my  time  of 
life,  begin  a-using  the  lash ;  and  you  know  they  do  have  to  take 
that,  all  on  'em— and  a  heap  on't,  sometimes." 

"  I  don't  know  much  about  it;  they  don't  have  slaves  where 
I  live." 

"  Then  you  come  from  a  Free  State  :  well,  they've  talked  some 
of  makin'  Alabamy  a  Free  State." 

"I  didn't  know  that." 


ALABAMA.  573 

"0,  yes,  there  was  a  good  deal  of  talk  one  time,  as  if  they 
was  goin'  to  do  it  right  off.  0,  yes ;  there  was  two  or  three 
cf  the  States  this  way,  one  time,  come  pretty  nigh  freein'  the 
niggers — lettin'  'em  all  go  free." 

"And  what  do  you  think  of  it?" 

"  Well,  I'll  tell  you  what  I  think  on  it ;  I'd  like  it  if  we  could 
get  rid  on  'em  to  yonst.  I  wouldn't  like  to  hev  'em  freed,  if 
they  was  gwine  to  hang  'round.  They  ought  to  get  some 
country,  and  put  'em  war  they  could  be  by  themselves.  It 
wouldn't  do  no  good  to  free  'em,  and  let  'em  hang  round,  because 
they  is  so  monstrous  lazy ;  if  they  hadn't  got  nobody  to  take 
keer  on  'em,  you  see  they  wouldn't  do  nothin'  but  juss  nat'rally 
laze  round,  and  steal,  and  pilfer,  and  no  man  couldn't  live,  you 
see,  war  they  was — if  tbey  was  free,  no  man  couldn't  live.  And 
then,  I've  two  objections ;  that's  one  on  'em — no  man  couldn't 
live — and  this  ere's  the  other:  Now  suppose  they  was  free,  you 
see  they'd  all  think  themselves  just  as  good  as  we ;  of  course 
they  would,  if  they  was  free.  Now,  just  suppose  you  had  a 
family  of  children,  how  would  you  like  to  hev  a  niggar  feelin' 
just  as  good  as  a  white  man?  how'd  you  like  to  hev  a  niggar 
steppin'  up  to  your  darter?  Of  course  you  wouldn't;  and  that's 
the  reason  I  wouldn't  like  to  hev  'em  free;  but  I  tell  you,  I 
don't  think  its  right  to  hev  'em  slaves  so  ;  that's  the  fac — taant 
right  to  keep  'em  as  they  \s." 


CHAPTER    X. 

EXPERIENCE    OP    ALABAMA. 

"  And  if  these  sorts  of  men  surprise  less  by  their  wandering,  as  for  the  most 
part,  without  wandering,  the  business  of  their  life  was  impossible ;  of  those 
again  who  dedicate  their  life  to  the  soil,  we  should  certainly  expect  that  they  at 
least  were  fixed.  By  no  means  !  Even  without  possession,  occupation  is  con- 
ceivable ;  and  we  behold  the  eager  farmer  forsaking  the  ground  which  for  years 
had  yielded  him  profit  and  enjoyment.  Impatiently  he  searches  after  similar,  or 
greater  profit,  be  it  far  or  near.  Nay,  the  owner  himself  will  abandon  his  new 
grubbed  clearage  so  soon  as,  by  his  cultivation,  he  has  rendered  it  commodious 
for  a  less  enterprising  husbandman;  once  more  he  presses  into  the  wilderness; 
again  makes  space  for  himself  in  the  forests ;  in  recompense  of  that  first  toiling 
a  double  and  treble  space  ;  on  which  also,  it  may  be,  he  thinks  not  to  continue." 
— Meister's  Travels.     Gcethe. 


ECONOiUCAL    EXPERIENCE. 

The  territorial  Government  of  Alabama  was  established  in 
1816,  and  in  1818  she  "was  admitted  as  a  State  into  the  Union. 
In  1820,  ber  population  was  128,000  ;  in  1850,  it  bad  increased 
to  772,000 ;  tbe  increase  of  tbe  previous  ten  years  having  been 
30  per  cent,  (that  of  Soutb  Carolina  was  5  per  cent. ;  of  Geor- 
gia, 31;  Mississippi,  60;  Michigan,  87;  Wisconsin,  890).  A 
large  part  of  Alabama  has  yet  a  strikingly  frontier  character. 
Even  from  the  State-house,  in  the  fine  and  promising  town  of 
Montgomery,  the  eye  falls  in  every  direction  upon  a  dense  forest, 
boundless  as  tbe  sea,  and  producing  in  the  mind  the  same 
solemn  sensation.  Towns  frequently  referred  to  as  important 
points  in  the  stages  of  your  journey,  when  you  reach  thera,  you 


EXPERIENCE     OF     ALABAMA.  575 

are  surprised  to  find  consist  of  not  more  than  three  or  four 
cabins,  a  tavern  or  grocery,  a  blacksmith's  shop,  and  a  stable. 

A  stranger  once  meeting  a  coach,  in  which  I  was  riding,  asked 
the  driver  whether  it  would  be  prudent  for  him  to  pass  through 
one  of  these  places,  that  we  had  just  come  from  ;  he  had  heard 
that  there  were  more  than  fifty  cases  of  small-pox  in  the  town. 
"  There  ain't  fifty  people  in  the  town,  nor  within  ten  mile  on't," 
answered  the  driver,  who  was  a  northerner.  The  best  of  the 
country  roads  are  but  little  better  than  open  passages  for  strong 
vehicles  through  the  woods,  made  by  cutting  away  the  trees. 

The  greater  number  of  planters  own  from  ten  to  twenty  slaves 
only,  though  plantations  on  which  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  are 
employed  are  not  uncommon,  especially  on  the  rich  alluvial  soils 
of  the  southern  part  of  the  State.  Many  of  the  largest  and  most 
productive  plantations  are  extremely  unhealthy  in  summer,  and 
their  owners  seldom  reside  upon  them,  except  temporarily. 
Several  of  the  larger  towns,  like  Montgomery,  remarkable  in  the 
midst  of  the  wilderness  which  surrounds  them,  for  the  neatness 
and  tasteful  character  of  the  houses  and  gardens  which  they 
contain,  are  in  a  considerable  degree,  made  up  of  the  residences 
of  gentlemen  who  own  large  plantations  in  the  hotter  and  less 
healthful  parts  of  the  State.  Many  of  these  have  been  educated 
in  the  older  States,  and  with  minds  enlarged  and  liberalized  by 
travel,  they  form,  with  their  families,  cultivated  and  attractive 
society. 

Much  the  larger  proportion  of  the  planters  of  the  State  live  in 
log-houses,  some  of  them  very  neat  and  comfortable,  but  fre- 
quently rude  in  construction,  not  chinked,  with  windows  un- 
glazed,  and  wanting  in  many  of  the  commonest  conveniences 
possessed  by  the  poorest  class  of  Northern  farmers  and  laborers 


576  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

of  the  older  States.  Many  of  those  who  live  in  this  way,  possess 
considerable  numbers  of  slaves,  and  are  every  year  buying  more. 
Their  early  frontier  life  seems  to  have  destroyed  all  capacity  to 
enjoy  many  of  the  usual  luxuries  of  civilized  life. 

Notwithstanding  the  youth  of  the  State,  there  is  a  constant 
and  extensive  emigration  from  it,  as  well  as  immigration  to  it. 
Large  planters,  as  their  stock  increases,  are  always  anxious  to 
enlarge  the  area  of  their  land,  and  will  often  pay  a  high  price  for 
that  of  any  poor  neighbor,  who,  embarrassed  by  debt,  can  be 
tempted  to  move  on.  There  is  a  rapid  tendency  in  Alabama, 
as  in  the  older  Slave  States,  to  the  enlargement  of  plantations. 
The  poorer  class  are  steadily  driven  to  occupy  poor  land,  or 
move  forward  on  to  the  frontier. 

In  an  Address  before  the  Chunnenuggee  Horticultural  Society, 
by  Hon.  C.  C.  Clay,  Jr.,  reported  by  the  author  in  De  Bow's 
Eeview,  December,  1855,  I  find  the  following  passage.  I  need 
add  not  a  word  to  it  to  show  how  the  political  experiment  of 
old  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia,  is  being  repeated  to  the 
same  cursed  result  in  young  Alabama.  The  author,  it  is  fair  to 
say,  is  devoted  to  the  sustentation  of  Slavery,  and  would  not,  for 
the  world,  be  suspected  of  favoring  any  scheme  for  arresting  this 
havoc  of  wealth,  further  than  by  chemical  science : 

"  I  can  show  you,  with  sorrow,  in  the  older  portions  of  Alabama,  and 
in  my  native  county  of  Madison,  the  sad  memorials  of  the  artless  and 
exhausting  culture  of  cotton.  Our  small  planters,  after  taking  the  cream 
off  their  lands,  unable  to  restore  them  by  rest,  man  ares,  or  otherwise,  are 
going  further  west  and  south,  in  search  of  other  virgin  lands,  which 
they  may  and  will  despoil  and  impoverish  in  like  manner.  Our  wealth- 
ier planters,  with  greater  means  and  no  more  skill,  are  buying  out  their 
poorer  neighbors,  extending  their  plantations,  and  adding  to  their  slave 
force.     The  wealthy  few,  who  are  able  to  live  on  smaller  profits,  and  to  give 


EXPERIENCE     OF    ALABAMA.  577 

their  blasted  fields  some  rest,  are  thus  pushing  off  the  many,  who  are  mere- 
ly independent. 

"  Of  the  twenty  millions  of  dollars  annually  realized  from  the  sales  of 
the  cotton  crop  .of  Alabama,  nearly  all  not  expended  in  supporting  the 
producers  is  reinvested  in  land  and  negroes.  Thus  the  white  population 
has  decreased,  and  the  slave  increased,  almost  pari  passu  in  several 
counties  of  our  State.  In  1825,  Madison  county  cast  about  3,000 
votes ;  now  she  cannot  cast  exceeding  2,300.  In  traversing  that  county 
one  will  discover  numerous  farm-houses,  once  the  abode  of  industrious  and 
intelligent  freemen,  now  occupied  by  slaves,  or  tenantless,  deserted,  and  di- 
lapidated ;  he  will  observe  fields,  once  fertile,  now  unfenced,  abandoned, 
and  covered  with  those  evil  harbingers — fox-tail  and  broom-sedge ;  he 
will  see  the  moss  growing  on  the  mouldering  walls  of  once  thrifty  vil- 
lages ;  and  will  find  '  one  only  master  grasps  the  whole  domain^  that  once 
furnished  happy  homes  for  a  dozen  white  families.  Indeed,  a  country 
in  its  infancy,  where,  fifty  years  ago,  scarce  a  forest  tree  had  been  felled  by 
the  axe  of  the  pioneer,  is  already  exhibiting  the  painful  signs  of  senility 
and  decay,  apparent  in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  ;  the  freshness  of  its 
agricultural  glory  is  gone ;  the  vigor  of  its  youth  is  extinct,  and  the  spirit 
of  desolation  seems  brooding  over  it." 
25 


CHAPTER    XI. 

LOUISIANA. 

NEW    ORLEANS. 

I  was  awakened,  in  the  morning,  by  the  loud  ringing  of  a 
hand-bell ;  and,  turning  out  of  my  berth,  dressed  by  dim  lamp- 
light. The  waiters  were  serving  coffee  and  collecting  baggage  ; 
and,  upon  stepping  out  of  the  cabin,  I  found  that  the  boat 
was  made  fast  to  a  long  wooden  jetty,  and  the  passengers  were 
going  ashore.  A  passage-ticket  for  New  Orleans  was  handed 
me,  as  I  crossed  the  gang-plank.  There  was  a  rail-track  and  a 
train  of  cars  upon  the  wharf,  but  no  locomotive  ;  and  I  got  my 
baggage  checked,  and  walked  on  toward  the  shore. 

It  was  early  day-light — a  fog  rested  on  the  water,  and  only 
the  nearest  point  could  be  discerned.  There  were  many  small 
buildings  near  the  jetty,  erected  on  piles  over  the  water — bathing- 
houses,  bowling-alleys,  and  billiard-rooms,  with  other  indications 
of  a  place  of  holiday  resort — and,  on  reaching  the  shore,  I  found 
a  slumbering  village.  The  first  house  from  the  wharf  had  a 
garden  about  it,  with  complex  alleys,  and  tables,  and  arbors, 
and  rustic  seats,  and  cut  shrubs,  and  shells,  and  statues,  and 
vases,  and  a  lamp  was  feebly  burning  in  a  large  lantern  over  the 
entrance-gate.  I  was  thinking  how  like  it  was  to  a  rural  restau- 
rant in  France  or  Germany,  when  a  locomotive  backed,  scream- 
ing hoarsely,  down  the  jetty ;  and  I  returned  to  get  my  seat. 

Off  we  puffed,  past  the  restaurant,  into  the  village — the  name 


LOUISIANA.  579 

of  which  I  did  not  inquire,  everybody  near  me  seemed  so  cold 
and  cross,  and  I  have  not  learned  it  since — through  the  little 
village  of  white  houses — whatever  it  was — and  away  into  a 
dense,  gray  cypress  forest.  For  three  or  four  rods,  each  side 
of  the  track,  the  trees  had  all  been  felled  and  removed,  leaving 
a  dreary  strip  of  swamp,  covered  with  stumps.  This  was 
bounded  and  intersected  by  broad  ditches,  or  narrow  and 
shallow  canals,  with  a  great  number  of  very  small  punts  in 
them — which,  I  suppose,  are  used  for  shrimp  catching.  So 
it  continued,  for  two  or  three  miles  ;  then  the  ground  became 
dryer,  there  was  an  abrupt  termination  of  the  grey  wood. 
The  fog  was  lifting  and  drifting  off,  in  ragged,  rosy  clouds,  and 
liberty  of  the  eye  was  given  over  a  flat  country,  skirted  still, 
and  finally  bounded,  in  the  back-ground,  with  the  swamp-forest. 
There  were  scattered,  irregularly  over  it,  a  few  low  houses, 
one  story  high,  all  having  verandahs  before  them. 

At  length,  a  broad  road  struck  in  by  the  side  of  the  track ; 
the  houses  became  frequent ;  soon  it  was  a  village  street,  with 
smoke  ascending  from  breakfast  fires  ;  windows  and  doors  open- 
ing, girls  sweeping  steps,  bakers'  wagons  passing,  and  broad 
streets,  little  built  upou,  breaking  off  at  right  angles. 

At  the  corners  of  these  streets,  were  high  poles,  connected  at 
the  top  by  a  rope,  and  furnished  with  blocks  and  halyards,  by 
which  great  square  lanterns  were  slung  over  the  middle  of  the 
carriage-way.  I  thought  again  of  France,  and  of  the  dread 
cry,  "a  la  lanterneJ"  and  turning  to  one  of  my  cold  and  cross 
companions — a  man  wrapped  in  a  loose  coat,  with  a  cowl  over 
his  head — I  asked  the  name  of  the  village,  for  my  geography 
was  at  fault.  I  had  expected  to  be  landed  at  New  Orleans 
by  the  boat,  and  had  not   been  informed  of  the  rail-road  ar- 


580  OUR    SLAVE    STATES. 

rangeinent,  and  had  no  idea  in  what  part   of   Louisiana   we 
might  be. 

"Note  Anglische,  sare,"  was  the  gruff  reply. 

There  was  a  sign,  "  Cafe,  du  Faubourg"  and,  putting  my  head 
out  of  the  window,  I  saw  that  we  were  thundering  into  New 
Orleans.  We  reached  the  terminus,  which  was  surrounded  with 
fiacres,  in  the  style  of  Paris.  "To  the  hotel  St.  Charles,"  I 
said  to  a  driver,  confused  with  the  loud  French  and  quiet 
English  of  the  crowd  about  me.  "  Oui,  yer  'onor,"  was  the 
reply  of  my  Irish-born  fellow-citizen :  another  passecger  was 
got,  and  away  we  rattled  through  narrow  dirty  streets,  among 
grimy  old  stuccoed  walls ;  high,  arched  windows  and  doors, 
balconies  and  entresols,  and  French  noises  and  French  smells 
(nothing  so  strong,  in  associations,  as  old  smells) ;  French  signs, 
ten  to  one  of  English,  but  with  funny  polygomatic  arrange- 
ments, sometimes,  from  which  less  influential  families  were  not 
excluded ;  thus : 

"Apartements   to   Let. 


A  la  fee  aux   Roses. 


Wein    Bier    en    detail. 


Chambres  a  louer. 


Upholsters  in  alt,  its  Branches. 


Kossuth  Coffee  house. 


Depot  des  graines  pour  les  oiseaux. 


To  Loyaute  Intelligence  Office,  only  for  the  girls  and  women  answering 
ho !  On  demande,  50  hommes  four  la  chemin-de-fer.  Wanted  to  work 
in  the  Rail-road  some  men  now. 


Defense  d'afficher .'" 


LOUISIANA.  581 

The  other  fare,  whom  I  had  not  ventured  to  speak  to,  was  set 
down  at  a  mile  pour  la  rente  des  somethings,  and  soon  after  the 
fiacre  turned  out  upon  a  broad  place,  covered  with  bales  of  cotton, 
and  casks  of  sugar,  and  weighing  scales,  and  disclosing  an  aston- 
ishing number  of  steam-boats,  lying  all  close  together  in  a  line, 
the  ends  of  which  were  lost  in  the  mist,  which  still  hung  upon  the 
river. 

Now  the  signs  became  English,  and  the  new  brick  build- 
ings American.  We  turned  into  a  broad  street,  in  which  shut- 
ters were  being  taken  from  great  glass  store-fronts,  and  clerks 
were  exercising  their  ingenuity  in  the  display  of  muslin,  and 
silks,  and  shawls.  In  the  middle  of  the  broad  street  there  was 
an  open  space  of  waste  ground,  looking  as  if  the  corporation  had 
not  been  able  to  pave  the  whole  of  it  at  once,  and  had  left  this 
interval  to  be  attended  to  when  the  treasury  was  better  filled. 
Crossing  through  a  gap  in  this  waste,  we  entered  a  narrow  street 
of  high  buildings,  French,  Spanish,  and  English  signs,  the  latter 
predominating ;  and  at  the  second  block,  I  was  landed  before 
the  great  Grecian  portico  of  the  stupendous,  tasteless,  ill-con- 
trived and  inconvenient  St.  Charles  Hotel. 

After  a  bath  and  breakfast,  I  returned,  with  great  interest,  to 
wander  in  the  old  French  town,  the  characteristics  of  which  I 
have  sufficiently  indicated.  Among  the  houses,  one  occasionally 
sees  a  relic  of  ancient  Spanish  builders,  while  all  the  newer  edi- 
fices have  the  characteristics  of  the  unartistic  and  dollar  pursuing 
Yankees. 

I  was  delighted  when  I  reached  the  old  Place  d' Amies,  now  a 
public  garden,  bright  with  the  orange  and  lemon  trees,  and  roses, 
and  myrtles,  and  laurels,  and  jessamines  of  the  south  of  France. 
Fronting  upon  it  is  the  old  Hotel  de  Ville,  still  the  city  court- 


582  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

house,  a  quaint  old  French  structure,  with  scaly  and  vermiculated 
surface,  and  deep-worn  door-sills,  and  smooth-rubbed  corners ; 
the  most  picturesque  and  historic-looking  public  building,  except 
the  highly-preserved,  little  old  court-house  at  Newport,  that  I 
can  now  think  of  in  the  United  States. 

Adjoining  it  is  an  old  Spanish  cathedral,  damaged  by  paint, 
and  late  alterations  and  repairs,  but  still  a  fine  thing  in  our 
desert  of  the  reverend  in  architecture.  Enough,  that  while.it  is 
not  new,  it  is  not  shabby,  and  is  not  tricked  out  with  much  frip- 
pery,* gingerbread  and  confectionery  work.  The  door  is  open ; 
coaches  and  crippled  beggars  are  near  it.  A  priest,  with  a  face 
in  which  the  expression  of  an  owl  and  an  ape  are  combined,  is 
coming  out.  If  he  were  not  otherwise  to  be  heartily  welcomed  to 
fresh  air  and  sunlight,  he  should  be  so  for  the  sake  of  the  Sister 
of  Charity  who  is  following  him,  probably  to  some  death-bed,  with 
a  corpse-like  face  herself,  haggard  but  composed,  pensive  and 
absorbed,  and  with  the  eyes  of  a  broken  heart.  I  may  yet  meet 
them  looking  down  compassionately  and  soothingly,  in  some  far 
distant  pestilent  or  war-hospital.  In  lieu  of  holy-water  then, 
here  is  money  for  the  poor-box,  though  the  devil  share  it  un- 
fairly with  good  angels. 

Dark  shadows,  and  dusky  light,  and  deep  subdued,  low  organ 
strains  pervade  the  interior;  and,  on  the  bare  floor,  here  are  the 
kneeling  women — "good"  and  "bad"  women — and,  ah!  yes, 
white  and  black  women,  bowed  in  equality  before  their  common 
Father.  "  Eidiculously  absurd  idea,"  say  democratic  Governors 
McDuffie  and  Hammond;  "  Self-evident,"  said  our  ancestors,  and 
bo  must  say  the  voice  of  conscience,  in  all  free,  humble  heart? 

*  Contemptible;  from  the  root  Fripper,  to  wear  out. — Wkbsteu. 


LOUISIANA.  583 

In  the  crowded  market-place,  there  were  not  only  the  pure 
old  Indian  Americans,  and  the  Spanish,  French,  English,  Celtic, 
and  African,  hut  nearly  all  possible  mixed  varieties  of  these,  and 
no  doubt  of  some  other  breeds  of  mankind. 

GRADATIONS    OF   COLOR. 

The  various  grades  of  the  colored  people  are  designated  by 
the  French  as  follows,  according  to  the  greater  or  less  predomi- 
nance of  negro  blood : 

Sacatra,         -  griffe  and  negress.  % 

Griffe,       -  negro  and  mulatto.*^ 

Marabon, mulatto  and  griffe.  tys 

Mulatto,    -----  white  and  nea-ro.  K 

Quarteron,     -        -        -        -        -  white  and  mulatto.  <f 

Metif,         -----  white  and  quarteron. 

Meamelouc,    -----  white  and  metif.  %% 

Quarteron,  -        -        -        -  white  and  meamelouc. 

Sang-mele,     -----  white  and  quarteron. 

And  all  these,  with  the  sub-varieties  of  them,  French,  Spanish, 
English,  and  Indian,  and  the  sub-sub-varieties,  such  as  Anglo- 
Indian-mulatto,  I  believe  experts  pretend  to  be  able  to  dis- 
tinguish. Whether  distinguishable  or  not,  it  is  certain  they  all 
exist  in  New  Orleans. 

They  say  that  the  cross  of  the  French  and  Spanish  with  the 
African  produces  a  finer  and  a  healthier  result  than  that  of  the 
more  Northern  European  races.  Certainly,  the  French  Quad- 
roons are  very  handsome  and  healthy  in  appearance;  and  I 
should  not  be  surprised  if  really  thorough  and  sufficient  sci- 
entific observation  should  show  them  to  be  more  vigorous  thav. 
either  of  the  parent  races. 


584  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

Some  of  the  colored  women  spoke  French,  Spanish,  and  Eng- 
lish, as  their  customers  demanded.* 

Three  taverns,  bearing  the  sign  of  "  The  Pig  and  Whistle," 
indicated  the  recent  English,  a  cabaret  to  the  Universal 
Eepublic,  with  a  red  flag,  the  French,  and  the  Gasthaus  zum 
Ehein  platz,  the  Teutonic  contributions  to  the  strength  of  our 
nation.  A  policeman,  with  the  richest  Irish  brogue,  directed  me 
back  to  the  St.  Charles. 

FINE   STOCK. 

In  front  of  a  large  New  York  clothing  store,  twenty-two 
negroes  were  standing  in  a  row.  They  each  wore  a  suit  of  blue 
cloth  clothing,  and  a  black  hat,  and  each  held  a  bundle  of 
additional  clothing,  and  a  pair  of  shoes,  in  his  bands.  They 
were  all,  but  one,  who  was  probably  a  driver  having  charge  of 
them,  young  men,  not  over  twenty-five,  and  the  majority,  I  should 
think,  were  between  eighteen  and  twenty-two  years  of  age. 
Their  owner  was  probably  in  the  clothing  store,  settling  for  the 
outfit  he  had  purchased  for  them,  and  they  were  waiting  to 
be  led  to  the  steam-boat,  which  should  convey  them  to  his 
plantation.  They  were  silent  and  sober,  like  a  file  of  soldiers 
"standing  at  ease;"  and,  perhaps,  were  gratified  by  the  admira- 
tion their  fine  manly  figures  and  uniform  dress  obtained  from 
the  passers  by. 


*[From  the  New  Orleans  Picayune."] 
"  Fifty  Dollars  Rkward. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  about  two 
months  ago,  a  bright  mulatto  girl,  named  Mary,  about  twenty-five  years  of  age, 
almost  white,  and  reddish  hair,  front  teeth  out,  a  cut  on  her  upper  lip  ;  about 
five  feet  five  inches  high  ;  has  a  scar  on  her  forehead  ;  she  passes  for  free  ;  talks 
French,  Italian,  Dutch,  English,  and  Spanish. 

"  Andue  Grasso. 
"  Upper  side  of  St.  Mary7s  Market." 


LOUISIANA.  585 

"  Well,  now,  that  ar's  the  likeliest  lot  of  niggers  I  ever  see," 
said  one,  to  me.  "  Some  feller's  bin  ronn',  and  just  made  his 
pick  out  o'  all  the  jails*  in  Orleens.  Must  ha'  cost  him  a 
heap  o'  rocks.  I  don't  reckon  thar's  a  nigger  in  that  crowd 
that  wouldn't  fetch  twelve  hundred  dollars,  at  a  vandue.  Twen- 
ty thousand  dollars  wouldn'  be  no  banter  for  'em.  Dam'd  if 
they  aint  just  the  best  gang  o'  cotton-hands  ever  I  see.  Give 
me  half  on  'em,  and  I'd  sign  off — wouldn'  ask  nothing  more." 

Louisiana  or  Texas,  thought  I,  pays  Virginia  twenty-odd 
thousand  dollars  for  that  lot  of  bone  and  muscle.  Virginia's 
interest  in  continuing  the  business  may  be  imagined,  especially 
if,  in  their  place,  could  come  free  laborers,  to  help  her  people  at 
the  work  she  needs  to  have  done ;  but  where  is  the  advantage 
of  it  to  Louisiana,  and  especially  to  Texas?  Yonder  is  a 
steam-boat  load  of  the  same  material — bone  and  muscle — which, 
at  the  same  sort  of  valuation,  is  worth  two  hundred  and  odd 
thousand  dollars  ;  and  off  it  goes,  past  Texas,  through  Louisiana 
— far  away  yet,  up  the  river,  and  Wisconsin  or  Iowa  will  get  it, 
two  hundred  thousand  dollars'  worth,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
thalers  and  silver  groschen,  in  those  strong  chests — all  for 
nothing. 

In  ten  years'  time,  .how  many  mills,  and  bridges,  and  school- 
houses,  and  miles  of  rail-road,  will  the  Germans  have  built? 
And  how  much  cloth  and  fish  will  they  want  from  Massachusetts, 
iron  from  Pennsylvania,  and  tin  from  Banca,  hemp  from  Kussia, 
tea  from  China,  and  coffee  from  Brazil,  fruit  from  Spain,  wine 
from  Ohio,  and  oil  and  gold  from  the  Pacific,  silk  from  France, 
sugar  from  Louisiana,  cotton  from  Texas,  and  rags  from  Italy, 

*  The  private  establishments,  in  which  stocks  of  slaves  are  kept  for  sale 
to  New  Orleans,  are  called  jails. 
25* 


586  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

lead  from  Illinois,  and  antimony  from  Hungary,  notions  from 
Connecticut,  and  machines  from  New  Jersey,  and  intelligence 
from  everywhere  ? 

And  how  much  of  all  these  things  will  the  best  two  hundred 
Virginians  that  Louisiana  can  buy,  at  any  price,  demand  of 
commerce,  in  ten  years  ? 

The  world's  prejudice  against  Slavery  is  not  inconsistent  with 
natural  depravity.  Every  man's  selfishness,  everywhere,  unless 
he  is  a  slave-owner,  or  means  to  be  one,  should  war  with  it. 

But  would  the  Germans  be  willing  to  live  in  the  warm  climate 
—and,  if  Virginia  did  not  furnish  negroes — could  Texas  furnish 
as  cotton? 

Hundreds  of  them  have  told  me  they  would  prefer  to  live  in 
the  South,  were  it  not  for  Slavery,  and  its  influences.  As  to 
whether  they  could,  listen  to  Mr.  Darby,  the  surveyor  and 
geographer  of  Louisiana : 

"  Between  the  9th  of  July,  1805,  to  the  7th  of  May,  1815,  incredible 
as  it  may  appear  to  many  persons,  I  actually  traveled  [in  Southern 
Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana  and,  what  is  now,  Texas]  twenty 
thousand  miles,  mostly  on  foot.  During  the  whole  of  this  period,  I  was 
not  confined  one  month,  put  all  my  indispositions  together,  and  not  one 
moment,  by  any  malady  attributable  to  climate.  I  have  slept  in  the 
open  air  for  weeks  together,  in  the  hottest  summer  nights,  and  endured 
this  mode  of  life  in  the  most  matted  woods,  perhaps,  in  the  world. 
During  my  survey  of  the  Sabine  river,  myself,  and  the  men  that 
attended  me,  existed,  for  several  weeks,  on  flesh  and  fish,  without  bread 
or  salt,  and  without  sickness,  of  any  kind.  That  nine-tenths  of  the 
distempers  of  warm  climates  may  be  guarded  against,  I  do  not  harbor 
a  single  doubt. 

"  If  climate  operates  extensively  upon  the  actions  of  human  beings,  it 
is  principally  their  amusements  that  are  regulated  by  proximity  to  the 
tropics.  Dancing  might  be  called  the  principal  amusement  of  both 
sexes,  in  Louisiana.  Beholding  the  airy  sweep  of  a  Creole  dance,  the 
length  of  time  that  an  assembly  will  persevere  in  the  sport,  at  any 


LOUISIANA.  587 

season  of  the  year,  cold  or  warm,  indolence  would  be  the  last  charge 
that  candor  could  lodge  against  such  a  people." 

"  Copying  from  Montesquieu,"  elsewhere  says  Mr.  Darby,  him- 
self a  slaveholder,  "  climate  has  been  called  upon  to  account  for 
stains  on  the  human  character,  imprinted,  by  the  hand  of  political 
mistake.  No  country  where  Negro  Slavery  is  established  but 
must  have  part  in  the  wounds  committed  on  nature  and  justice." 

A  writer  in  Household  Words,  speaking  of  the  "popular  fal- 
lacy, that  a  man  cannot  do  a  hard  day's  work  in  the  climate  of 
India,"  says : 

"  I  have  seen  as  hard  work,  real  bone  and  muscle  work,  done  by  citi- 
zens of  the  United  Kingdom  in  the  East,  as  was  ever  achieved  in  the 
cold  West,  and  all  upon  rice  and  curry — not  curry  and  rice — in  which 
the  rice  has  formed  the  real  meal,  and  the  curry  has  merely  helped  to  give 
it  a  relish,  as  a  sort  of  substantial  Kitchener's  zest,  or  Harvey's  sauce. 
I  have  seen,  likewise,  Moormen,  Malabars,  and  others  of  the  Indian 
laboring  classes,  perform  a  day's  work  that  would  terrify  a  London  por- 
ter, or  coal-whipper,  or  a  country  navvy,  or  ploughman  ;  and  under  the 
direct  rays  of  a  sun,  that  has  made  a  wooden  platform  too  hot  to  stand 
on,  in  thin  shoes,  without  literally  dancing  with  pain,  as  I  have  done 
many  a  day,  within  six  degrees  of  the  line." 

MECHANICS    AND    LABORERS. 

A  mechanic,  English  by  birth,  Avho  had  lived  in  New  Orleans 
for  several  years,  always  going  up  the  river  in  the  summer,  to 
escape  the  danger  of  fever  in  the  city,  told  me  that  he  could  lay 
up  money  much  more  rapidly  there  than  in  New  York.  The  ex- 
penses of  living  were  not  necessarily  greater  than  in  New  York. 
If  a  man  kept  house,  and  provided  for  himself,  he  could  live  much 
cheaper  than  at  boarding-houses.  Many  unmarried  mechanics, 
therefore,  lived  with  colored  mistresses,  who  were  commonly  vile 
and  dishonest.     He  was  at  a  boarding-house,  where  he  paid  four 


5SS  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

dollars  a  week.  In  New  York  he  had  paid  three  dollars,  hut 
the  hoard  was  not  as  good  as  in  New  Orleans.  "  The  reason," 
said  he,  "  that  people  say  it  costs  so  much  more  to  live  here  than 
in  New  York  is,  that  what  they  think  treats  in  New  York,  they 
consider  necessaries  here.  Everybody  lives  freer,  and  spends 
their  money  more  willingly  here."  When  he  first  came  to  New 
Orleans,  a  New  England  mechanic  came  with  him.  He  sup- 
posed him  to  have  been  previously  a  man  of  sober  habits ;  hut 
almost  immediately  after  he  got  to  New  Orleans,  he  got  into  bad 
ways,  and  in  a  few  months  he  was  so  often  drunk,  and  brought 
so  much  scandal  on  their  boarding-house,  that  he  was  turned  out 
of  it.  Soon  after  this,  he  called  on  him,  and  borrowed  two 
dollars.  He  said  he  could  not  live  in  New  Orleans,  it  was  too 
expensive,  and  he  was  going  to  Texas.  This  was  several  years 
before,  and  he  had  not  heard  from  him  since.  He  had  left  a 
family  in  New  England ;  and  this  he  said  was  a  very  common 
course  Avith  New  England  boys,  who  had  been  "  too  carefully 
brought  up  at  home,"  when  they  came  to  New  Orleans.  The 
master  mechanics,  who  bought  up  slaves,  and  took  contracts  for 
work,  he  said,  made  more  money  than  any  others.  They  did  so 
because  they  did  very  poor  work — poorer  than  white  mechanics 
could  generally  be  got  to  do.  But  nearly  all  work  was  done  in 
Newr  Orleans  more  hastily  and  carelessly  than  in  New  York, 
though  he  thought  it  was  bad  enough  there.  The  slave-holding 
bosses  could  get  no  white  men  to  work  with  their  slaves,  except 
Irishmen  or  Germans — no  man  who  had  any  regard  for  his  posi- 
tion among  his  fellow-craftsmen  would  ever  let  himself  be  seen 
working  with  a  negro.  He  said  I  could  see  any  day  in  Canal 
street,  ■'  a  most  revolting  sight" — Irishmen  waiting  on  negro 
masons,     He  had  seen,  one  morning  as  he  was  going  to  his 


LOUISIANA.  589 

work,  a  negro  carrying  some  mortar,  when  another  negro  hailed 
him  with  a  loud  laugh:  "Hallo!  you  is  turned  Irishman,  is 
'ou  ?'.'  White  working  men  were  rapidly  displacing  the  slaves 
in  all  sorts  of  work,  and  he  hoped  and  believed  it  would  not  be 
many  years  before  every  negro  would  be  driven  out  of  the  town. 
He  thought  acclimated  white  men  could  do  more  hard  work  than 
negroes,  even  in  the  hottest  weather,  if  they  were  temperate,  and 
avoided  too  stimulating  food.  That,  he  said,  was  the  general 
opinion  among  those  of  them  who  staid  over  summer.  Those 
who  drank  much  whisky  and  cordials,  and  kept  up  old  habits 
of  eating,  just  as  if  they  were  in  England,  were  the  ones 
who  complained  most  of  the  climate,  and  who  thought  white 
men  were  not  i  made  to  work  in  it.  He  had  staid  as  late  as 
July,  and  returned  in  September,  and  he  never  saw  the  day 
in  which  he  could  not  do  as  much  work  as  he  did  in 
London. 

A  New-Yorker,  that  I  questioned  about  this,  said :  "  I  have 
worked  through  the  very  hottest  weather,  steadily,  day  after  day, 
and  done  more  work  than  any  three  niggers  in  the  State,  and 
been  no  worse  for  it.  A  man  has  only  got  to  take  some  care  of 
himself." 

Going  to  Lafayette,  on  the  top  of  an  omnibus,  I  heard  an 
Irishman,  somewhat  over-stimulated,  as  Irishmen  are  apt  to  be, 
loudly  declare  himself  an  abolitionist ;  a  companion  endeavored 
in  vain  to  stop  him,  or  make  him  recant,  and  finally  declared  he 
would  not  ride  any  further  with  him  if  he  would  not  be  more 
discreet. 

The  Morehouse  (Louisiana)  Advocate,  in  an  article  abusive  of 
foreigners,  thus  describes  what,  if  foreign  born  working  men  were 
not  generally  so  ignorant  and  easily  imposed  upon  as  they  are, 


590  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

would   undoubtedly   be  (although  they  certainly   have  not  yet 
generally  been)  their  sentiments  with  regard  to  Slavery : 

"  The  great  mass  of  foreigners  who  come  to  our  shores  are  laborers, 
and  consequently  come  in  competition  with  slave  labor.  It  is  to  their 
interest  to  abolish  Slavery ;  and  we  know  full  well  the  disposition  of 
man  to  promote  all  things  which  advance  his  own  interests.  These  men 
come  from  nations  where  Slavery  is  not  allowed,  and  they  drink  in  abo- 
lition sentiments  from  their  mothers'  breasts  ;  they  (all  the  white  race) , 
entertain  an  utter  abhorrence  of  being  put  on  a  level  with  blacks, 
whether  in  the  field  or  in  the  work-shop.  Could  Slavery  be  abolished, 
there  would  be  a  greater  demand  for  laborers,  and  the  prices  of  labor 
must  be  greatly  enhanced.  These  may  be  termed  the  internal  evidences 
of  the  abolitionism  of  foreigners. 

"But  we  may  find  near  home  facts  to  corroborate  these  'internal' 
evidences  :  It  is  well  known  that  there  exists  a  great  antipathy  among 
draymen  and  rivermen  of  New  Orleans  (who  are  almost  to  a  man  for- 
eigners) to  the  participation  of  slaves  in  these  branches  of  industry." 

It  is  obvious  that  free  men  have  very  much  gained  the  field  of 
labor  in  New  Orleans  to  themselves.  The  majority  of  the  cart- 
men,  hackney-coach  men,  porters,  rail-road  hands,  public  waiters, 
and  common  laborers,  as  well  as  of  skilled  mechanics,  appear  to 
be  white  men  ;  and  of  the  negroes  employed  in  those  avocations, 
a  considerable  proportion  are  free. 

This  is  the  case  here  more  than  in  any  other  town  in  Slavery, 
although  the  climate  is  torrid,  and  inconvenient  or  dangerous  to 
strangers ;  because  New  Orleans  is  more  extensively  engaged  in 
commerce,  and  because  there  is,  by  the  passing  and  sojourning 
immigration  from  Europe,  constantly  in  the  city  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  free  laborers,  to  sustain,  by  competition  and  association 
with  each  other,  the  habits  of  free-labor  communities.  It  is 
plainly  perceptible  that  the  white  working  men  in  New  Orleans 
have  more  business-like  manners,  and  more  assured  self-respect, 


LOUISIANA.  591 

than  those  of  smaller  towns.  They  are  even  not  without  esprit 
du  corps. 

As  Commerce,  or  any  high  form  of  industry  requires  intelli- 
gence in  its  laborers,  slaves  can  never  be  brought  together  in 
dense  communities,  but  their  intelligence  will  increase  to  a  degree 
dangerous  to  those  who  enjoy  the  benefit  of  their  labor.  The 
slave  must  be  kept  dependent,  day  by  day,  upon  his  master  for 
his  daily  bread,  or  he  will  find,  and  will  declare  his  independ- 
ence, in  all  respects,  of  him.  This  condition  disqualifies  the  slave 
for  any  but  the  simplest  and  rudest  forms  of  labor ;  and  every 
attempt  to  bring  his  labor  into  competition  with  free  labor  can 
only  be  successful  at  the  hazard  of  insurrection.  Hundreds  of 
slaves  in  New  Orleans  must  be  constantly  reflecting  and  saying 
to  one  another,  "  I  am  as  capable  of  taking  care  of  myself  as 
this  Irish  hod-carrier,  or  this  German  market-gardener ;  why 
can't  I  have  the  enjoyment  of  my  labor  as  well  as  they  ?  I  am 
as  capable  of  taking  care  of  my  own  family  as  much  as  they  of 
theirs  ;  why  should  I  be  subject  to  have  them  taken  from  me  by 
those  other  men  who  call  themselves  our  owners  ?  Our  chil- 
dren have  as  much  brains  as  the  children  of  these  white  neighbors 
of  ours,  who  not  long  ago  were  cooks  and  waiters  at  the  hotels, 
why  should  they  be  spurned  from  the  school-rooms'?  I  helped 
to  build  the  school-house,  and  have  not  been  paid  for  it.  One 
thing  I  know,  if  I  can't  have  my  rights,  I  can  have  my  pleasures  ; 
and  if  they  won't  give  me  wages  I  can  take  them." 

That  this  influence  of  association  in  labor  with  free-men  can- 
not fail  to  be  appreciated  by  intelligent  observers,  will  be  evident 
from  the  following  paragraph  from  the  New  Orleans  Crescent, 
although  it  was  probably  written  to  show  only  the  amusing  and 
picturesque  aspect  of  the  slave  community  : 


592  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

"  Guinea-like. — Passing  along  Baronne  street,  between  Perdido 
and  Poydras  streets,  any  Sunday  afternoon,  the  white  passer-by  might 
easily  suppose  himself  in  Guinea,  Caffraria,  or  any  other  thickly-peopled 
region  in  the  land  of  Ham.  Where  the  darkies  all  come  from,  what 
they  do  there,  or  where  they  go  to,  constitute  a.  problem  somewhat  be- 
yond our  algebra.  It  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  nigger  exchange.  We  know 
there  are  in  that  vicinity  a  colored  church,  colored  ice-cream  saloon, 
colored  restaurant,  colored  coffee-houses,  and  a  colored  barber- 
shop, which,  we  have  heard  say,  has  a  back  communication  with  one  of 
the  groggeries,  for  the  benefit  of  slaves ;  but  as  the  police  haven't 
found  it  out  yet,  we  suppose  it  ain't  so.  However,  if  the  ebony 
dandies  who  attend  Sunday  evening  'change,  would  keep  within  their 
various  retreats,  or  leave  a  path  about  three  feet  wide  on  the 
side-walk,  for  the  free  passage  of  people  who  are  so  unlucky  as  to 
be  white,  we  wouldn't  complain  ;  but  to  have  to  elbow  one's  way 
through  a  crowd  of  woolly-heads  on  such  a  day  as  yesterday,  their  natu- 
ral muskiness  made  more  villainous  by  the  fumes  of  whisky,  is  too 
much  for  delicate  olfactories  like  ours,  A  fight,  last  evening,  between 
two  white  men  at  one  of  the  doggeries,  afforded  much  edification  to  the 
darkies  standing  around,  and  seemed  to  confirm  them  in  their  opinion, 
that  white  folks,  after  all,  ain't  much." 

Similar  complaints  to  the  following,  which  I  take  from  the 
New  Orleans  Crescent,  I  have  heard,  or  seen  in  the  journals,  at 
Eichmond,  Savannah,  Louisville,  and  most  other  large  manufac- 
turing, or  commercial  towns  of  the  South. 

"  Passes  to  Negroes. — Something  must  be  done  to  regulate  and 
prescribe  the  manner  in  which  passes  shall  be  given  to  slaves.  This  is 
a  matter  that  should  no  longer  be  shirked  or  avoided.  The  Common 
Council  should  act  promptly.  The  slave  population  of  this  city  is  al- 
ready demoralized  to  a  deplorable  extent,  all  owing  to  the  indiscrimi- 
nate license  and  indulgence  extended  them  by  masters,  mistresses,  and 
guardians,  and  to  the  practice  of  forging  passes,  which  has  now  become 
a  regular  business  in  New  Orleans.  The  greater  portion  of  the  evil 
flows  from  forged  passes.  As  things  now  stand,  any  negro  can  obtain 
a  pass  for  four  bits  or  a  dollar,  from  miserable  wretches  who  obtain  a 
living  by  such  infamous  practices.  The  consequence  is  that  hundreds 
spend  their  nights  drinking,  carousing,  gambling,  and  contracting  the 


LOUISIANA.  593 

worst  of  habits,  which  not  only  make  them  useless  to  their  owners,  but 
dangerous  pests  to  society.  We  know  of  many  negroes,  completely 
ruined,  morally  and  physically,  by  such  causes.  The  inherent  vice  in 
the  negro  character  always  comes  out  when  unrestrained,  and  there  is 
no  degradation  too  low  for  him  to  descend. 

"  "Well,  for  the  remedy  to  cure  this  crying  evil.  Prosecuting  the 
forgers  is  out  of  the  question  ;  for  where  one  conviction  could  be  obtained, 
thousands  of  fraudulent  passes  would  be  written.  Slave  evidence  loeighs 
nothing  against  white  forgers  and  scoundrels.  Hence  the  necessity  of 
adopting  some  other  mode  of  prevention.  It  has  been  suggested  to  us, 
that  if  the  Council  would  adopt  a  form  for  passes,  different  each  month, 
to  be  obtained  by  masters  from  the  Chief  of  Police,  exclusively,  that  a 
great  deal  of  good  would  be  at  once  accomplished.  We  have  no  doubt 
of  it.  Further,  we  believe  that  all  owners  and  guardians  would  cheer- 
fully submit  to  the  inconvenience  in  order  to  obtain  so  desirable  an  end. 
We  trust  the  Common  Council  will  pay  some  little  attention  to  these 
suggestions." 

How  many  men,  accustomed  to  the  close  calculations  necessa- 
ry to  successful  enterprises,  can  listen  to  these  suggestions,  with- 
out asking  themselves  whether  a  system,  that  requires  to  be 
sustained  by  such  inconvenient  defenses,  had  not  better  be 
thrown  up  altogether? 

First  and  last,  I  spent  some  weeks  in  New  Orleans  and  its 
vicinity.  I  doubt  if  there  is  a  city  in  the  world,  where  the 
resident  population  has  been  so  divided  in  its  origin,  or  where 
there  is  such  a  variety  in  the  tastes,  habits,  manners,  and  moral 
codes  of  the  citizens.  Although  this  injures  civic  enterprise — 
which  the  peculiar  situation  of  the  city  greatly  demands  to  be  di- 
rected to  means  of  cleanliness,  convenience,  comfort,  and  health- 
it  also  gives  a  greater  scope  to  the  working  of  individual  enterprise, 
taste,  genius,  and  conscience ;  so  that  nowhere  are  the  higher 
qualities  of  man — as  displayed  in  generosity,  hospitality,  be- 
nevolence, and  courage — better  developed,  or  the  lower  qualities, 


594  '     OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

likening  him  to  a  beast,  less  interfered  with,  by  law  or  the  action 
of  public  opinion. 

There  is  one,  among  the  multitudinous  classifications  of 
society  in  New  Orleans,  which  is  a  very  peculiar  and  charac- 
teristic result  of  the  prejudices,  vices,  and  customs  of  the 
various  elements  of  color,  class,  and  nation,  which  have  been 
there  brought  together. 

I  refer  to  a  class  composed  of  the  illegitimate  offspring  of 
white  men  and  colored  women  (mulattoes  or  quadroons),  who, 
from  habits  of  early  life,  the  advantages  of  education,  and  the 
use  of  wealth,  are  too  much  superior  to  the  negroes,  in  general,  to 
associate  with  them,  and  are  not  allowed  by  law,  or  the  popular 
prejudice,  to  marry  white  people.  The  girls  are  frequently  sent 
to  Paris  to  be  educated,  and  are  very  accomplished.  They  are 
generally  pretty,  and  often  handsome.  I  have  rarely,  if  ever, 
met  more  beautiful  women,  than  one  or  two  of  them,  that  I 
saw  by  chance,  in  the  streets.  They  are  much  better  formed, 
and  have  a  much  more  graceful  and  elegant  carriage  than 
Americans  in  general,  while  they  seem  to  have  commonly  in- 
herited or  acquired  much  of  the  taste  and  skill,  in  the  selection 
and  arrangement,  and  the  way  of  wearing  dresses  and  ornaments, 
that  is  the  especial  distinction  of  the  women  of  Paris.  Their 
beauty  and  attractiveness  being  their  fortune,  they  cultivate  and 
cherish  with  diligence  every  charm  or  accomplishment  they  are 
possessed  of. 

Of  course,  men  are  attracted  by  them,  associate  with  them, 
are  captivated,  and  become  attached  to  them,  and,  not  being  able 
to  marry  them  legally,  and  with  the  usual  forms  and  securities 
for  constancy,  make  such  arrangements  "  as  can  be  agreed 
upon."     When  a  man  makes  a  declaration  of  love  to  a  girl  oi 


LOUISIANA.  595 

this  class,  she  will  admit  or  deny,  as  the  case  may  he,  her  happi- 
ness in  receiving  it;  hut,  supposing  she  is  favorably  disposed, 
she  will  usually  refer  the  applicant  to  her  mother.  The  mother 
inquires,  like  a  Countess  of  Kew,  into  the  circumstances  of 
the  suitor;  ascertains  whether  he  is  able  to  maintain  a  family, 
and,  if  satisfied  with  him,  in  these  and  other  respects,  requires 
from  him  security  that  he  will  support  her  daughter  in  a  style 
suitable  to  the  habits  she  has  been  bred  to,  and  that,  if  he 
should  ever  leave  her,  he  will  give  her  a  certain  sum  for  her 
future  support,  and  a  certain  additional  sum  for  each  of  the 
children  she  shall  then  have. 

The  wealth,  thus  secured,  will,  of  course,  vary — as  in  society 
with  higher  assumptions  of  morality — with  the  value  of  the 
lady  in  the  market ;  that  is,  with  her  attractiveness,  and  the 
number  and  value  of  other  suitors  she  may  have,  or  may 
reasonably  expect.  Of  course,  I  do  not  mean  that  love  has 
nothing  at  all  to  do  with  it ;  but  love  is  sedulously  restrained, 
and  held  firmly  in  hand,  until  the  road  of  competency  is  seen  to 
be  clear,  with  less  humbug  than  our  English  custom  requires 
about  it.  Everything  being  satisfactorily  arranged,  a  tenement 
in  a  certain  quarter  of  the  town  is  usually  hired,  and  the  couple 
move  into  it  and  go  to  housekeeping — living  as  if  they  were 
married.  The  woman  is  not,  of  course,  to  be  wholly  deprived 
of  the  society  of  others — her  former  acquaintances  are  continued, 
and  she  sustains  her  relations  as  daughter,  sister,  and  friend. 
Of  course,  too,  her  husband  (she  calls  him  so — why  shouldn't 
she  ?)  will  be  likely  to  continue,  also,  more  or  less  in,  and  form 
a  part  of,  this  kind  of  society.  There  are  parties  and  balls 
— bals  masques — and  all  the  movements  and  customs  of 
other   fashionable  society,  which  they  can  enjoy  in  it,  if  they 


596  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

wish.*     The  women  of  this  sort  are  represented  to  be  exceed- 
ingly affectionate  in  disposition,  and  constant  beyond  reproach. 

During  all  the  time  a  man  sustains  this  relation,  he  will 
commonly  be  moving,  also,  in  reputable  society  on  the  other 
side  of  the  town;  not  improbably,  eventually  he  marries,  and 
and  has  a  family  establishment  elsewhere.  Before  doing  this,  he 
may  separate  from  his  placet  (so  she  is  termed).  If  so,  he  pays 
her  according  to  agreement,  and  as  much  more,  perhaps,  as  his 
affection  for  her,  or  his  sense  of  the  cruelty  of  the  proceeding, 
may  lead  him  to  ;  and  she  has  the  world  before  her  again,  in 
the  position  of  a  widow.  Many  men  continue,  for  a  long  time, 
to  support  both  establishments — particularly,  if  their  legal  mar- 
riage is  one  de  convenance.  But  many  others  form  so  strong 
attachments,  that  the  relation  is  never  discontinued,  but  becomes, 
indeed,  that  of  marriage,  except  that  it  is  not  legalized  or  sol- 
emnized. These  men  leave  their  estate,  at  death,  to  their 
children,  to  whom  they  may  have  previously  given  every  advan- 
tage of  education  they  could  command.     What  becomes  of  the 


*"THE    GLOBE    BALL    ROOM, 

Corner  of  St.  Claude  and  St.  Peter  streets,  abreast  of  the  Old  Basin, 

WILL    OPEN    THIS    EVENING,  October  16,  when  a  Society  Ball  will 
be  given. 

No  ladies  admitted  without  masks. 

Gentlemen,  fifty  cents — Ladies,  gratis. 

Doors  open  at  (Jg  o'clock.    Ball  to  commence  at  10  o'clock. 

No  person  admitted  with  weapons,  by  order  of  the  Council. 

A  superior  orchestra  has  been  engaged  for  the  season. 

The  public  may  be  assured  of  the  most  strict  order,  as  there  will  be  at  all 
times,  an  efficient  police  in  attendance. 

Attached  to  the  establishment  is  a  superior  Bar,  well  stocked  with  wines 
and  liquors  ;  also,  a  Restaurant,  where  may  be  had  all  such  delicacies  as  the 
market  affords. 

All  ladies  are  requested  to  procure  free  tickets  in  the  Mask  Room,  as  no  lady 
will  be  admitted  into  the  ball  room  without  one. 

A.    WHITLOCK,  Manager." 


LOUISIANA.  597 

boys,  I  am  not  informed ;  the  girls,  sometimes,  are  removed  to 
other  countries,  where  their  color  does  not  prevent  their  living 
reputable  lives;  but,"  of  course,  mainly  continue  in  the  same 
society,  and  are  fated  to  a  life  similar  to  that  of  their  mothers. 

I  have  described  this  custom  as  it  was  described  to  me ;  I 
need  hardly  say  in  only  its  best  aspects.  The  crime  and 
heart-breaking  sorrow  that  must  frequently  result  from  it,  must 
be  evident  to  every  reflective  reader. 

A  gentleman,  of  New  England  education,  gave  me  the  follow- 
ing account  of  his  acquaintance  with  the  quadroon  society.  On 
first  coming  to  New  Orleans,  he  was  drawn  into  the  social  circles 
usually  frequented  by  New  England  people,  and  some  time 
afterwards  was  introduced  by  a  friend  to  a  quadroon  family,  in 
which  there  were  three  pretty  and  accomplished  young  women. 
They  were  intelligent  and  well  informed ;  their  musical  taste  was 
especially  well  cultivated ;  they  were  interested  in  the  literature 
of  the  day,  and  their  conversation  upon  it  was  characterized  by 
good  sense  and  refined  discrimination.  He  never  saw  any  indi- 
cation of  a  want  of  purity  of  character  or  delicacy  of  feeling  in 
them.  He  was  much  attracted  by  them,  and  for  some  time  visit 
ed  them  very  frequently.  Having  then  discontinued  his  inti 
macy,  at  length  one  of  the  girls  asked  him  why  he  did  not  come 
to  see  them  as  often  as  he  had  formerly  done.  He  frankly 
replied  that  he  had  found  their  society  so  fascinating,  that  he 
had  thought  it  best  to  restrict  himself  in  the  enjoyment  of  it,  lest 
it  should  become  necessary  to  his  happiness  ;  and  out  of  regard 
to  his  general  plans  of  life,  and  the  feelings  of  his  friends,  he 
could  not  permit  himself  to  indulge  the  purpose  to  be  united 
to  one  of  them,  according  to  the  usual  custom  with  their 
class.     The   young   woman   was   evidently   much   pained,  but 


598  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

not  at  all  offended,  and  immediately  acknowledged  and  com- 
mended the  propriety  and  good  sense  of  his  resolution. 

One  reason  -which  leads  this  way  of  living  to  be  frequently 
adopted  by  unmarried  men,  who  come  to  New  Orleans  to  carry 
on  business,  is,  that  it  is  much  cheaper  than  living  at  hotels  and 
boarding-houses.  As  no  young  man  ordinarily  dare  think  of 
marrying,  until  he  has  made  a  fortune  to  support  the  extravagant 
style  of  house-keeping,  and  gratify  the  expensive  tastes  of  young 
women,  as  fashion  is  now  educating  them,  many  are  obliged  to 
make  up  their  minds  never  to  marry.  Such  a  one  undertook  to 
show  me  that  it  was  cheaper  for  him  to  placer  than  to  live  in 
any  other  way  that  he  could  be  expected  to  in  New  Orleans. 
He  hired,  at  a  low  rent,  two  apartments  in  the  older  part  of  the 
town  ;  his  placee  did  not,  except  occasionally,  require  a  servant ; 
she  did  the  marketing,  and  performed  all  the  ordinary  duties  of 
house-keeping  herself;  she  took  care  of  his  clothes,  and  in  every 
way  was  economical  and  saving  in  her  habits — it  being  her 
interest,  if  her  affection  for  him  were  not  sufficient,  to  make  him 
as  much  comfort  and  as  little  expense  as  possible,  that  he  might 
be  the  more  strongly  attached  to  her,  and  have  the  less  occasion 
to  leave  her.  He  concluded  by  assuring  me  that  whatever  might 
be  said  against  it,  it  certainly  was  better  than  the  way  in  which 
most  young  men  lived  who  depended  on  salaries  in  New  York. 

While  we  have  so  little  real  social  democracy  that  we  manifest 
our  respect  less  to  character  and  mental  and  aesthetic  attain- 
ments than  to  offices  and  positions,  we  must  dress  extravagantly, 
must  be  housed  extravagantly,  must  spend  an  extravagant  por- 
tion of  time  in  senseless  employments,  must  neglect  the  essential 
means  of  comfort  and  health,  and  must  forget  taste  for  the  neces- 
sary means  of  display ;  because  these  are  badges  and  signs  of 


LOUISIANA.  599 

positions  superior,  at  least,  to  those  of  our  servants  and  prole- 
taires. 

A  woman  may  have  spent  a  year  in  learning  how  a  loaf  of 
bread  and  a  dish  of  soup  can  be  made,  a  steak  broiled,  and  a 
potatoe  boiled,  in  a  perfectly  wholesome  and  yet  palatable  man- 
ner ;  things  which  it  is  certain  that  not  one  American  man  or 
woman  among  a  thousand  has  ever  seen,  or  has  any  correct 
idea  about.  She  may  have  spent  ten  years  in  the  study  of 
beauty,  of  taste  and  domestic  fine-art,  and  thus  possess  an  un- 
failing power  of  self-cheering  and  of  elevating  the  lives  of  all  in 
her  house,  and  it  will  command  for  her,  if  her  husband  is  a  book- 
keeper, or  an  editor,  or  an  actor,  on  a  small  salary,  less  respect 
and  less  influence — for  her  children,  less  exterior  social  advanta- 
ges— than  the  woman  with  no  solid  acquirements  will  possess,  if 
her  husband  is  able  to  pay  a  thousand  dollars  rent  for  a  stone- 
veneered  dwelling,  and  furnish  a  stylish  carriage  for  her  to  send 
cards  from. 

Perhaps  I  am  wrong  in  saying  that  this  is  so.  I  believe 
in  New  York  it  is  not  so.  But  such  is  the  general  opinion, 
and  by  this  unfortunate  opinion  the  mass  of  young  minds  are 
ruled. 

But,  regardless  of  social  position  and  reputation  with  the 
world,  how  rarely  are  we  educated  to  be  happy,  without  exces- 
sive expenditure.  The  taste  of  our  young  men  and  of  our 
young  women  is  so  little  or  so  badly  cultivated  that  they  have 
hardly  any  conception  of  comfort  without  splendor,  or  of  beauty 
beyond  fashion.  There  are,  therefore,  so  few  houses  built  in  our 
towns  Avith  prime  regard  to  health  and  simple  convenience,  and 
there  are  so  few  of  us  sufficiently  educated  as  purveyors  and 
cooks,  to  provide  a  palatable  variety  of  good  food,  except  at  a 


600  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

wasteful  expense,  that  a  large  income  is  really  made  necessary 
for  a  merely  wholesome  and  comfortable  family  life. 

Our  young  men,  therefore,  shrink  from  marriage  until  they  can 
command  business  positions,  from  "which  they  can  safely  under- 
take to  pay  rent  for  stone  veneering,  and  suites  of  parlors,  to 
buy  theatrical  furniture,  and  to  support  idle,  if  not  sickly  fami- 
lies, "  in  a  style  of  barbaric  splendor."  Those  less  conscientious 
and  more  bold — how  often  are  they  detected  in  peculations  and 
reckless  gambling  speculations. 

And  when  there  is  generally  so  little  comprehension  of  the 
more  noble  sources  of  pleasure  which  may  be  commanded  with 
moderate  wealth,  are  their  passions  dormant  while  a  pure  do- 
mestic life  is  held  to  be  so  far  in  the  future? 

The  Irish  are  faithless  of  the  future,  improvident,  passionate, 
and  marry  young.  The  Scotch  are  cool,  ambitious,  and  penu- 
rious, and,  much  less  often  than  the  Irish,  marry  without  seeing 
their  way  clear  to  household  comfort.  Is  there  no  philosophical 
connection  between  these  differences  of  character  and  the  fact 
that  licentiousness  is  exceedingly  prevalent  in  Scotland,  while 
Ireland  is  more  free  from  it  than  any  other  country  in  the  world? 

It  is  asserted  by  Southerners  who  have  lived  at  the  North, 
and  Northerners  who  have  lived  at  the  South,  that  although  the 
facilities  for  licentiousness  are  much  greater  at  the  South,  the 
evil  of  licentiousness  is  much  greater  at  the  North.  Not 
because  the  average  standard  of  "  respectable  position"  requires 
a  less  expenditure  at  the  South,  for  the  contrary  is  the  case.* 
But  it  is  said  licentiousness   at  the   North  is  far  more  capti- 

*  A  gentleman  in  an  inland  Southern  tovrn  said  to  me,  "  I  have  now  but  one 
servant ;  if  I  should  marry,  I  should  be  obliged  to  buy  three  more,  and  that 
alone  would  withdraw  from  my  capital  at  least  three  thousand  dollars." 


LOUISIANA.  601 

vating,  irresistible,  and  ruinous  than  at  the  South.  Its  very 
intrigues,  cloaks,  hazards,  and  expenses,  instead  of  repressing  the 
passions  of  young  men,  exasperate  them,  and  increase  its  de- 
grading effect  upon  their  character,  producing  hypocrisy,  inter- 
fering with  high  ambitions,  destroying  self-respect,  causing  the 
worst  possible  results  to  their  health,  and  giving  them  habits 
Avhich  are  inimical  to  future  domestic  contentment  and  virtue. 

With  regard  to  young  men  in  towns,  I  think  this  may  be  true, 
though  in  rural  life  the  advantage  of  the  North,  I  believe,  is 
incomparable. 

Mrs.  Douglass,  a  Virginia  woman,  who  was  tried,  convicted  and 
punished,  a  year  or  two  since,  for  teaching  a  number  of  slaves  to 
read,  contrary  to  law,  says,  in  a  letter  from  her  jail : 

"  This  subject  demands  the  attention,  not  only  of  the  religious  popu- 
lation, but  of  statesmen  and  law-makers.  It  is  one  great  evil  hanging 
over  the  Southern  Slave  States,  destroying  domestic  happiness,  and  the 
peace  of  thousands.  It  is  summed  up  in  the  single  word — amalgama- 
tion. This,  and  this  only,  causes  the  vast  extent  of  ignorance,  degrada- 
tion and  crime,  that  lies  like  a  black  cloud  over  the  whole  South.  And 
the  practice  is  more  general  than  even  the  Southerners  are  willing  to 
allow. 

"  Neither  is  it  to  be  found  only  in  the  lower  order  of  the  white  popu- 
lation. It  pervades  the  entire  society.  Its  followers  are  to  be  found 
among  all  ranks,  occupations  and  professions.  The  white  mothers  and 
daughters  of  the  South  have  suffered  under  it  for  years — have  seen  their 
dearest  affections  trampled  upon — their  hopes  of  domestic  happiness 
destroyed,  and  their  future  lives  embittered,  even  to  agony,  by  those 
who  should  be  all  in  all  to  them,  as  husbands,  sons,  and  brothers.  I 
cannot  use  too  strong  language  in  reference  to  this  subject,  for  I  know 
that  it  will  meet  with  a  heart-felt  response  from  every  Southern  woman." 

A  negress  was  hung  this  year  in  Alabama,  for  the  murder  of 

her  child.     At  her  trial,  she  confessed  her  guilt.     She  said  her 

owner  was  the  father  of  the  child,  and  that  her  mistress  knew  it, 
26 


602  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

and  treated  it  so  cruelly  in  consequence,  that  she  had  killed  it 
to  save  it  from  further  suffering,  and  also  to  remove  a  provoca- 
tion to  her  own  ill-treatment. 

A  large  planter  told  me  the  reason  he  sent  his  boys  to  the 
North  to  be  educated  was,  that  there  was  no  possibility  of  their 
being  brought  up  in  decency  at  home.  Another  planter  told  me 
that  he  was  intending  to  move  to  a  free  country  on  this  account. 
He  said  that  the  practice  was  not  occasional  or  general,  it  was 
universal.  "  There  is  not,"  he  said,  "  a  likely-looking  black  girl 
in  this  State,  that  is  not  the  paramour  of  a  white  man.  There  is 
not  an  old  plantation  in  which  the  grandchildren  of  the  owner 
are  not  whipped  in  the  field  by  his  overseer.     I  cannot  bear  that 

the  blood  of  the should  run  in  the  veins  of  slaves."     He 

was  of  an  old  Scotch  family. 

There  is  but  one  step  between  the  way  of  living  which  I  have 
described  to  be  so  common  with  young  men  in  New  Orleans, 
and  a  natural,  virtuous,  and  commendable  way  of  living.  It  is, 
to  be  sure,  a  step  most  important  and  needful  to  a  good  state  of 
society.  But  let  any  one  visit  the  hospitals  of  New  York,  and 
inquire  into  the  causes  of  disease,  and  it  will  be  seen  that  there 
is  a  way  of  living,  fearfully  prevalent  among  us,  which  is  but  a 
step,  and  that  often  a  short  one,  above  the  life  of  beasts. 

Whether  there  is  less  licentiousness  in  New  Orleans  than  in 

New  York,  it  is  impossible  to  more  than  guess ;  but  it  is  certain 

that  there  is  less   obvious  licentiousness,  and  that  the  physical 

penalties  of  it,  however  it  may  be  with  the  moral,  are  less  hor- 
l 

rible  and  general. 

The  late  lamented  Dr.  Kelly,  a  most  sensible  and  religious 
man,  for  several  years  superintending  physician  at  the  BlackwelPs 
Island  S.  hospital,  has  more  than  once  expressed  his  conviction 


LOUISIANA.  603 

to  me,  that  at  least  one  in  five  of  the  whole  population  of  New 
York  city  is  tainted  with  the  incurable  disease  which  is  born  only 
in  the  lowest  form  of  licentiousness.  Another  physician  tells 
me  that  he  has  often  been  called  upon  by  old  men,  of  the  most 
respectable  position,  and  officers  of  the  churches,  who  were 
suffering  the  most  acute  distress  from  the  sins  of  their  youth. 
When  we  reflect  that  this  suffering  is  not  only  incurable,  but, 
under  some  circumstances,  contagious,  and  endlessly  transmissi- 
ble to  offspring,  we  shall  see  the  sins  of  society  punished  in  it, 
as  well  as  of  individuals. 

May  it  not  be  that  the  effect  of  our  present  laws,  which  are 
intended  to  be  prohibitory  of  licentiousness,  is  only  to  change 
the  form  and  outward  appearance  of  the  vice,  and  rather  to 
increase  than  to  diminish  its  essential  evil?  Such  has  been  the 
conclusion,  as  is  well  known,  of  the  legislative  power  of  Prussia 
and  Denmark. 


EED    RIVER   EMIGRANT    CRAFT. 

On  Saturday  morning  I  found  that  two  boats,  the  Swamp  Fox 
and  the  St.  Charles,  were  advertised  to  leave  in  the  evening,  for 
Shreveport,  on  the  Red  Eiver.  I  went  to  the  levee,  and,  finding 
the  St.  Charles  to  be  the  best  of  the  two,  I  asked  her  clerk  if  I 
could  engage  a  state-room.  There  was  just  one  state-room 
berth  left  unengaged ;  I  was  requested  to  place  my  name  against 
its  number  on  the  passenger-book — and  did  so,  understanding 
that  it  was  thus  secured  for  me. 

Having  taken  leave  of  my  friends,  I  had  my  baggage  brought 
down,  and  went  on  board  at  half-past  three — the  boat  being 
advertised  to  sail  at  four.  Four  o'clock  passed,  and  freight  was 
still  being  taken   on — a  fire  had  been  made  in  the  furnace,  and 


604  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

the  boat's  big  bell  was  rung.  I  noticed  tbat  the  Swamp  Fox 
was  also  firing  up,  and  tbat  her  bell  rang  whenever  ours  did — 
though  she  was  not  advertised  to  sail  till  five.  At  length, 
when  five  o'clock  came,  the  clerk  told  me  he  thought,  perhaps, 
they  would  not  be  able  to  get  off  at  all  that  night — there  was 
so  much  freight  still  to  come  on  board.  Six  o'clock  arrived, 
and  he  felt  certain  that,  if  they  did  get  off  that  night,  it  would 
not  be  till  very  late.  At  halt-past  six,  he  said  the  captain  had 
not  come  on  board  yet,  and  he  was  quite  sure  they  would  not 
be  able  to  get  off  that  night.  I  prepared  to  return  to  the  hotel, 
and  asked  if  they  would  leave  in  the  morning.  He  thought  not. 
He  was  confident  they  would  not.  He  was  positive  they  could 
not  leave  now,  before  Monday,  at  twelve  o'clock — I  might  rely 
upon  it. 

Monday  morning,  The  Picayune  stated,  editorially,  that  the 
floating  palace,  the  St  Charles,  would  leave  for  Shreveport,  at 
five  o'clock,  and,  if  anybody  wanted  to  make  a  quick  and  luxurious 
trip  up  Eed  Eiver,  with  a  jolly  soul,  Captain  Lickup  was  in 
command.  It  also  stated,  in  another  paragraph,  that,  if  any 
of  its  friends  had  business  up  Eed  Eiver,  Captain  Pitchup  was 
a  whole-souled  veteran  in  that  trade,  and  was  going  up  with 
that  remarkably  low-draft  favorite,  the  Swamp  Fox,  to  leave 
at  four  o'clock  that  evening.  Both  boats  were  also  announced, 
in  the  advertising  columns,  to  leave  at  four  o'clock. 

As  the  clerk  had  told  me  the  St.  Charles  would  leave  at  noon, 
however,  I  thought  there  might  bave  been  a  misprint  in  the 
newspaper  announcements,  and  so  went  on  board  again  before 
twelve.  Tbe  clerk  informed  me  that  the  newspaper  was  right 
— they  had  finally  concluded  not  to  sail  till  four  o'clock. 
Before  four,  I  returned  again,  and  the  boat  again  fired  up,  and 


LOUISIANA.  605 

rang  her  bell.  So  did  the  Swamp  Fox.  Neither,  however,  was 
quite,  ready  to  leave  at  four  o'clock.  Not  quite  ready  at  five. 
Even  at  six — not  yet  quite  ready.  At  seven,  the  fires  having 
burned  out  in  the  furnace,  and  the  stevedores  having  gone  away, 
leaving  a  quantity  of  freight  yet  on  the  dock,  without  advising 
this  time  with  the  clerk,  I  had  my  baggage  re-transferred  to 
the  hotel. 

A  similar  performance  was  repeated  on  Tuesday. 

On  Wednesday,  I  found  the  berth  I  had  engaged  occupied 
by  a  very  strong  man,  who  was  not  very  polite,  when  I 
informed  him  that  I  believed  there  was  some  mistake — that 
the  berth  he  was  using  had  been  engaged  to  me.  I  went  to 
the  clerk,  who  said  that  he  was  sorry,  but  that,  as  I  had  not 
staid  on  board  at  night,  and  had  not  paid  for  the  berth,  he  had 
not  been  sure  that  I  should  go,  and  he  had,  therefore,  given  it 
to  the  gentleman  who  now  had  it  in  possession,  and  whom, 
he  thought,  it  would  not  be  best  to  try  to  reason  out  of  it.  He 
was  very  busy,  he  observed,  because  the  boat  was  going  to  start 
at  four  o'clock ;  if  I  would  now  pay  him  the  price  of  passage, 
he  would  do  the  best  he  could  for  me.  When  he  had  time  to 
examine,  he  could  probably  put  me  in  some  state-room,  if  not 
quite  as  good  a  one  as  that  I  had  lost.  I  could,  at  any  rate, 
put  my  baggage  in  his  private  state-room,  until  the  boat  got 
off,  and  then  he  would  make  some  satisfactory  arrangements  for 
me.  I  inquired  if  it  was  quite  certain  that  the  boat  would  get 
off  at  four ;  for  I  had  been  asked  to  dine  with  a  friend,  at  three 

o'clock.     There  was  not  the  smallest  doubt  that  she  would  leave 

I 

at  four.  They  were  all  ready,  at  that  moment,  and  only  waited 
till  four,  because  the  agent  had  advertised  that  they  would — 
merely  a  technical  point  of  honor. 


606  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

But,  by  some  error  of  calculation,  I  suppose,  she  didn't  go  at 
four.     Nor  at  five.     Nor  at  six. 

At  seven  o'clock,  the  Swamp  Fox  and  the  St.  Charles  were 
both  discharging  dense  smoke  from  their  chimneys,  blowing 
steam,  and  ringing  bells.  It  was  apparent  that  each  was  making 
every  exertion  to  get  off  before  the  other.  The  captains  of  both 
boats  stood  at  the  break  of  the  hurricane  deck,  as  if  they  were 
waiting  impatiently  for  mails  to  come  on  board. 

The  St.  Charles  was  crowded  with  passengers,  and  her  decks 
were  piled  high  with  freight.  Bumboatmen,  about  the  bows, 
were  offering  shells,  and  oranges,  and  bananas ;  and  newsboys, 
and  peddlers,  and  tract  distributers,  were  squeezing  about  with 
their  wares  among  the  passengers.  I  had  confidence  in  their 
instinct;  there  had  been  no  such  numbers  of  them  the  previous 
evenings,  and  I  made  up  my  mind,  although  past  seven  o'clock, 
that  the  St.  Charles  would  not  let  her  fires  go  down  again. 

Among  the  peddlers  there  were  two  of  "  cheap  literature,"  and 
among  their  yellow  covers,  each  had  two  or  three  copies  of  the 
cheap  edition  (pamphlet)  of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.  They  did  not 
cry  it  out  as  they  did  the  other  books  they  had,  but  held  it  forth 
among  others,  so  its  title  could  be  seen.  One  of  them  told  me 
he  carried  it  because  gentlemen  often  inquired  for  it,  and  he  sold 
a  good  many  :  at  least  three  copies  were  sold  to  passengers  on 
the  boat.  Another  young  man,  who  looked  like  a  beneficiary  of 
the  Education  Society,  endeavoring  to  pass  a  college  vacation  in 
a  useful  and  profitable  manner,  was  peddling  a  Bible  Defense  of 
Slavery,  which  he  made  eloquent  appeals,  in  the  manner  of  a  pas- 
toral visit,  to  us,  each  personally,  to  purchase.  He  said  it  was 
prepared  by  a  clergyman  of  Kentucky,  and  every  slave-holder 
ought  to  possess  it.     When  he  came  to  me,  I  told  him  that  1 


LOUISIANA.  G07 

owned  no  slaves,  and  therefore  had  no  occasion  for  it.  He  an- 
swered that  the  world  was  before  me,  and  I  perhaps  yet  might 
own  many  of  them.  I  replied  so  decidedly  that  -I  should  not, 
that  he  appeared  to  be  satisfied  that  my  conscience  would  not 
need  the  book,  and  turned  back  again  to  a  man  sitting  beside 
me,  who  had  before  refused  to  look  at  it.  He  now  urged  again 
that  he  should  do  so,  and  forced  it  into  his  hands,  open  at  the 
title-page  on  which  was  a  vignette,  representing  a  circle  of 
colored  gentlemen  and  ladies,  sitting  around  a  fire-place,  with  a 
white  person  standing  behind  them,  like  a  servant,  reading  from 
a  book.  "  Here  we  see  the  African  race  as  it  is  in  America, 
under  the  blessed — " 

"  Now  you  go  to  hell !  I've  told  you  three  times,  as  civilly 
as- 1  could,  I  didn't  want  your  book.  If  you  bring  it  here  again 
I'll  throw  it  overboard.  I  own  niggers  ;  and  I  calculate  to  own 
more  of  'em,  if  I  can  get  'em,  but  I  don't  want  any  damned 
preachin'  about  it." 

That  was  the  last  I  saw  of  the  book-pedcller. 

It  was  twenty  minutes  after  seven  when  the  captain  observed, 
scanning  the  levee  in  every  direction,  to  see  if  there  was  another 
cart  or  carriage  coming  towards  us,  "  No  use  waiting  any  longer, 
I  reckon :  throw  off,  Mr.  Heady."  (The  Swamp  Fox  did  not 
leave,  I  afterwards  heard,  till  Saturday.) 

We  backed  out,  winded  round  head  up,  and  as  we  began  to 
breast  the  current,  a  dozen  of  the  negro  boat-hands,  standing  on 
the  freight,  piled  up  on  the  low  forecastle,  began  to  sing,  waving 
hats  and  handkerchiefs,  and  shirts  lashed  to  poles,  towards  the 
people  who  stood  on  the  sterns  of  the  steam-boats  at  the 
levee.  After  losing  a  few  lines,  I  copied  literally  into  my 
note-book : 


608  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

"  Ye  see  dem  boat  way  dak  ahead. 
Chorus. — Oakoiokieu. 

De  San  Charles  is  arter  'em,  dey  mus  go  beliine. 
Cho. — Oakoiokieu. 

So  stir  up  dak,  my  livelies,  stir  her  up  ;  (pointing  to 
tke  furnaces). 

Cho. — Oakoiokieu. 

Dey's  burnin'  not'n  but  fat  and  rosum. 
Cho. — Oakoiokieu. 

Ok,  we  is  gwine  up  de  Red  River,  ok ! 
Cho. — Oahoiohieu. 

Ok,  we  mus  part  from  you  dak  asko'. 
Cho. — Oakoiokieu. 

Give  my  lub  to  Dinah,  ok ! 

Cho. — Oakoiokieu. 

For  we  is  gwine  up  de  Red  River. 
Cho. — Oakoiokieu. 

Yes,  we  is  gwine  up  de  Red  River. 
Cho. — Oakoiokieu. 

Ok  we  must  part  from  you  dak  ok. 
Cho. — Oakoiokieu." 

[The  wit  introduced  into  these  songs  has,  I  suspect,  been 
rather  over-estimated.  On  another  occasion  I  took  down  the 
following : 

"  John  come  down  in  de  koller, 
Ok,  work  and  talk  and  koller, 
Ok,  Jokn,  come  down  in  de  ko'.ler, 
Ime  gwine  away  to-morrow. 

Ok,  Jokn,  &c. 

Ime  gwine  away  to  marry, 

Ok,  John,  &c. 

Get  my  cloves  in  order, 

Ok,  Jokn,  &c. 


LOUISIANA.  609 

I'se  gwine  away  to-morrow, 

Oh,  John,  &c. 

Oh,  work  and  talk  and  holler, 
Oh,  John,  &c. 

Massa  guv  me  dollar, 

Oh,  John,  &c. 

Don't  cry  yer  eyes  out,  honey, 
Oh,  John,  &c. 

I'm  gwine  to  get  some  money, 
Oh,  John,  &c. 

But  I'll  come  back  to-morrow, 
Oh,  John,  &c. 

So  work  and  talk  and  holler, 
Oh,  John,  &c. 

Work  all  day  and  Sunday, 

Oh,  John,  &c. 

Massa  get  de  money, 

Oh,  John,  &c. 

After  the  conclusion  of  this  song,  and  after  the  negroes  had 
left  the  bows,  and  were  coming  aft  along  the  guards,  we  passed 
two  or  three  colored  nurses,  walking  with  children  on  the  river 
bank;  as  we  did  so  the  singers  jumped  on  some  cotton  bales, 
bowed  very  low  to  them,  took  off  their  hats,  and  swung  and 
waved  them,  and  renewed  their  song : 

God  bless  you  all,  dah  !  ladies  ! 

Oh,  John  come  down  in  de  holler, 

Farwell,  de  Lord  be  wid  you,  honey, 
Oh,  John,  come  down,  &c. 

Done  cry  yerself  to  def, 
Oh,  John.  &c. 

I'm  gwine  down  to  New  Orleans, 
Oh,  John.  &c. 
26* 


610  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

I'll  come  back,  dough,  bime-by, 
Oh,  John,  &c, 

So  far-you-well,  my  honey, 
Oh,  John,  &c. 

Far-you-well,  all  you  dah,  shore, 
Oh,  John,  &c. 

And  save  your  cotton  for  de  Dalmo ! 
Oh,  John,  &c] 

As  soon  as  the  song  was  ended,  I  went  into  the  cabin  to 
remind  the  clerk  to  obtain  a  berth  for  me.  I  found  two  brilliant 
supper  tables  reaching  the  whole  length  of  the  long  cabin,  and  a 
file  of  men  standing  on  each  side  of  both  of  them,  ready  to  take 
seats  as  soon  as  the  signal  was  given. 

The  clerk  was  in  his  room,  with  two  other  men,  and  appeared 
to  be  more  occupied  than  ever.  His  manner  was,  I  thought, 
now  rather  cool,  not  to  say  rude  ;  and  he  very  distinctly  informed 
me  that  every  berth  was  occupied,  and  he  didn't  know  where  I 
was  to  sleep.  He  judged  I  was  able  to  take  care  of  myself ;  and 
if  I  was  not,  he  was  quite  sure  that  he  had  too  much  to  do  to 
give  all  his  time  to  my  surveillance.  I  then  went  to  the  captain, 
and  told  him  that  I  thought  myself  entitled  to  a  berth.  I  had 
paid  for  one,  and  should  not  have  taken  passage  in  the  boat,  if 
it  had  not  been  promised  me.  I  was  not  disposed  to  fight  for  it, 
particularly  as  the  gentleman  occupying  the  berth  engaged  to  me 
was  a  good  deal  bigger  fellow  than  I,  and  also  carried  a  bigger 
knife ;  but  I  thought  the  clerk  was  accountable  to  me  for  a  berth, 
and  I  begged  that  he  would  inform  him  so.  He  replied  that  the 
clerk  probably  knew  his  business  ;  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  it ; 
and  walked  away  from  me.  I  then  addressed  myself  to  a 
second  clerk,  or  sub-officer  of  some  denomination,  who  more 


LOUISIANA.  611 

good-naturedly  informed  me  that  half  the  company  were  in  the 
same  condition  as  myself,  and  I  needn't  be  alarmed,  cots  would 
be  provided  for  us. 

As  I  saw  that  the  supper-table  was  likely  to  be  crowded,  I 
asked  if  there  would  be  a  second  table.  "  Yes,  they'll  keep  on 
eatin'  till  they  all  get  through."  I  walked  the  deck  till  I  saw 
those  who  had  been  first  seated  at  the  table  coming  out ;  then 
going  in,  I  found  the  table  still  crowded,  while  many  stood 
waiting  to  take  seats  as  fast  as  any  were  vacated.  I  obtained 
one  for  myself  at  length,  and  had  no  sooner  occupied  it  than 
two  half-intoxicated  and  garrulous  men  took  the  adjoining 
stools. 

It  Avas  near  nine  o'clock  before  the  tables  were  cleared  away, 
and  immediately  afterwards  the  waiters  began  to  rig  a  frame- 
work for  sleeping-cots  in  their  place.  These  cots  were  simply 
canvas  shelves,  five  feet  and  a  half  long,  two  wide,  and  less  than 
two  feet  apart,  perpendicularly.  A  waiter,  whose  good  will  I 
had  purchased  at  the  supper-table,  gave  me  a  hint  to  secure  one 
of  them  for  myself,  as  soon  as  they  were  erected,  by  putting  my 
hat  in  it.  I  did  so,  and  saw  that  others  did  the  same.  I  chose 
a  cot  as  near  as  possible  to  the  midship  doors  of  the  cabin,  per- 
ceiving that  there  was  not  likely  to  be  the  best  possible  air, 
after  all  the  passengers  were  laid  up  for  the  night,  in  this  com- 
pact manner. 

Nearly  as  fast  as  the  cots  were  ready  they  were  occupied. 
To  make  sure  that  mine  was  not  stolen  from  me,  I  also,  without 
much  undressing,  laid  myself  away.  A  single  blanket  was  the 
only  bed-clothing  provided.  I  had  not  lain  long,  before  I  was 
driven,  by  an  exceedingly  offensive  smell,  to  search  for  a  cleaner 
neighborhood;  but  I  found  all  the  cots  fore  and  aft,  were  either 


612  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

occupied  or  engaged.  I  immediately  returned,  and  that  I  might 
have  a  dernier  resort,  left  my  shawl  in  that  I  had  first  ohtained. 

In  the  forward  part  of  the  cabin  there  was  a  bar,  a  stove,  a 
table,  and  a  placard  of  rules,  forbidding  smoking,  gambling,  and 
swearing  in  the  cabin,  and  a  close  company  of  drinkers, 
smokers,  card-players,  and  constant  swearers.  I  went  out,  and 
stepped  down  to  the  boiler-deck.  The  boat  had  been  provided 
with  very  poor  wood,  and  the  firemen  were  crowding  it  into  the 
furnaces  whenever  they  could  find  room  for  it,  driving  smaller 
sticks  between  the  larger  ones  at  the  top,  by  a  battering-ram 
method. 

Most  of  the  firemen  were  Irish  born ;  one  with  whom  I  con- 
versed was  English.  He  said  they  were  divided  into  three 
watches,  each  working  four  hours  at  a  time,  and  all  hands  liable 
to  be  called,  when  wooding,  or  landing,  or  taking  on  freight,  to 
assist  the  deck-hands.  They  were  paid  now  but  thirty  dollars  a 
month — ordinarily  forty,  and  sometimes  sixty — and  board.  He 
was  a  sailor  bred.  This  boat-life  was  harder  than  sea-faring,  but 
the  pay  was  better,  and  trips  were  short.  The  regular  thing  was 
to  make  two  trips,  and  then  lay  up  for  a  spree.  It  would  be  too 
hard  upon  a  man,  he  thought,  to  pursue  it  regularly ;  two  trips 
"  on  end"  was  as  much  as  a  man  could  stand.  He  must  then 
take  a  "  refreshment."  Working  this  way  for  three  weeks,  and 
then  refreshing  for  about  one,  he  did  not  think  it  was  unhealthy, 
no  more  so  than  ordinary  sea-faring.  He  concluded,  by  inform- 
ing me  that  the  most  striking  peculiarity  of  the  business  was,  that 
it  kept  a  man,  notwithstanding  wholesale  periodical  refreshment, 
very  dry.  He  was  of  opinion  that  after  the  information  I  had 
obtained,  if  I  gave  him  at  least  the  price  of  a  single  drink,  and 
some  tobacco,  it  would  be  characteristic  of  a  gentleman. 


LOUISIANA.  613 

Going  round  behind  the  furnace,  I  found  a  large  quantity  of 
freight :  hogsheads,  barrels,  cases,  bales,  boxes,  nail-rods,  rolls 
of  leather,  plows,  cotton  bale-rope,  and  fire-wood,  all  thrown 
together  in  the  most  confused  manner,  with  hot  steam-pipes,  and 
parts  of  the  engine  crossing  through  it.  As  I  explored  further 
aft,  I  found  negroes  lying  asleep  in  all  postures,  upon  the  freight. 
A  single  group  only,  of  five  or  six,  appeared  to  be  awake,  and  as 
I  drew  near  to  them  they  commenced  to  sing  a  Methodist  hymn, 
not  loudly,  as  negroes  generally  do,  but,  as  it  seemed  to  me, 
with  a  good  deal  of  tenderness  and  feeling ;  a  few  white  people — 
men,  women  and  children — were  lying  here  and  there,  among  the 
negroes.  Altogether,  I  heard  we  had  two  hundred  of  these  deck 
passengers,  black  and  white.  A  stove,  by  which  they  could  fry 
bacon,  was  the  only  furniture  provided  for  them  by  the  boat. 
They  carried  with  them  their  provisions  for  the  voyage,  and  had 
their  choice  of  the  freight  for  beds. 

As  I  came  to  the  bows  again,  and  was  about  to  ascend  to  the 
cabin,  two  men  came  down,  one  of  whom  I  recognized  to  have 
been  my  cot  neighbor.  "Where's  a  bucket?"  said  he;  "by 
thunder!  this  fellow  was  so  strong  I  could  not  sleep  by  him,  so  I 
stumped  him  to  come  down  and  wash  his  feet."  "  I  am  much 
obliged  to  you,"  said  I,  and  I  was,  very  much  ;  the  man  had  been 
lying  in  the  cot  beneath  mine,  which  I  now  returned  to,  and  soon 
fell  asleep. 

I  awoke  about  midnight.  There  was  an  unusual  jar  in  the 
boat,  and  an  evident  excitement  among  people  talking  on  deck. 
I  rolled  out  of  my  cot,  and  stepped  out  on  to  the  gallery.  The 
steamboat  "Kimball"  was  running  head-and-head  with  us,  and  so 
close  that  one  might  have  jumped  easily  from  our  paddle-box  on 
to  her  guards.     A  few  other  passengers  had  turned  out  beside 


614  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

myself,  and  most  of  the  waiters  were  leaning  on  the  rail  of  the 
gallery.  Occasionally  a  few  words  of  banter  passed  between 
them  and  the  waiters  of  the  Kimball ;  below,  the  firemen  were 
shouting  as  they  crowded  the  furnaces,  and  some  one  could  be 
heard  cheering  them:  "Shove  her  up,  boys!  Shove  her  up ! 
Give  her  hell!"  "  She's  got  to  hold  a  conversation  with  us  be- 
fore she  gets  by,  anyhow,"  said  one  of  the  negroes.  "Ye  har' 
that  ar'  whistlin',"  said  a  white  man ;  "  tell  ye  thar  an't  any  too 
much  water  in  her  bilers  when  ye  har  that."  I  laughed  silently, 
but  was  not  without  a  slight  expectant  sensation,  which  Mr. 
Burke  would  have  called  sublime.  At  length  the  Kimball  slowly 
drew  ahead,  crossed  our  bow,  and  the  contest  was  given  up. 
"  De  ole  lady  too  heavy,"  said  a  waiter ;  "  if  I  could  pitch  a 
few  ton  of  dat  freight  off  her  bow,  I'd  bet  de  Kimball  would  be 
askin'  her  to  show  de  way,  mighty  quick." 

At  half-past  four  o'clock  a  hand-bell  was  rung  in  the  cabin, 
and  soon  afterwards  I  was  informed  that  I  must  get  up,  that  the 
servants  might  remove  the  cot  arrangement,  and  clear  the  cabin 
for  the  breakfast-table. 

Breakfast  was  not  ready  till  half-past  seven.  In  the  mean 
time,  having  washed  in  the  barber's  shop,  I  walked  on  the  hurri- 
cane deck,  where  I  got  very  damp  and  faint.  The  passengers, 
one  set  after  another,  and  then  the  pilots,  clerks,  mates,  and 
engineers,  and  then  the  free-colored  people,  and  then  the  waiters, 
chambermaids,  and  passengers'  body  servants,  having  break- 
fasted, the  tables,  were  cleared,  and  the  cabin  was  swept.  The 
tables  were  then  again  laid  for  dinner.  Thus  the  greater  part  of 
the  cabin  was  constantly  occupied,  and  the  passengers  who  had 
not  state-rooms  to  retreat  to  were  driven  to  herd  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  card-tables  and  the  bar,  the  lobby  (Social  Hall,  I  believe 


LOUISIANA.  C15 

it's  called),  in  which  most  of  the  passengers'  baggage  was  deposit- 
ed, or  to  go  outside.  Every  part  of  the  boat,  except  the  bleak 
hurricane  deck,  was  crowded;  and  so  large  a  number  of  equally 
uncomfortable  and  disagreeable  people  I  think  I  never  saw  else- 
where together.  We  made  very  slow  progress,  landing,  it  seems 
to  me,  after  we  entered  Ked  River,  at  every  "  bend,"  "  bottom,'' 
''  bayou,"  "  point,"  and  "  plantation"  that  came  in  sight ;  often 
for  no  other  object  than  to  roll  out  a  barrel  of  flour,  or  a  keg  of 
nails;  sometimes  merely  to  furnish  newspapers  to  a  wealthy 
planter,  who  had  much  cotton  to  send  to  market,  and  whom 
it  was  therefore  desirable  to  please. 

I  was  sitting  one  day  on  the  forward  gallery,  watching  a  pair 
of  ducks,  that  were  alternately  floating  on  the  river,  and  flying 
further  ahead  as  the  steamer  approached  them.  A  man  standing 
near  me  drew  a  long  barreled  and  very  finely-finished  pistol 
from  his  coat  pocket,  and,  resting  it  against  a  stanchion,  took 
aim  at  them.  They  were,  I  judged,  full  the  boat's  own  length 
— not  less  than  two  hundred  feet — from  us  and  were  just  raising 
their  wings  to  fly,  when  he  fired.  One  of  them  only  rose ;  the 
other  flapped  round  and  round,  and  when  within  ten  yards  of  the 
boat,  dived.  The  bullet  had  broken  its  wing.  So  remarkable  a 
shot  excited,  of  course,  not  a  little  admiration  and  conversation. 
Half  a  dozen  other  men  drew  pistols,  or  revolvers,  which  they 
appeared  to  carry  habitually,  and  several  were  fired  at  floating 
chips,  or  objects  on  the  shore.  I  saw  no  more  remarkable 
shooting,  however ;  and  that  the  duck  should  have  been  hit  at 
such  a  distance,  was  generally  considered  a  piece  of  luck.  A 
man  who  had  been  "in  the  Rangers"  said  that  all  his  company 
could  put  a  ball  into  a  tree,  the  size  of  a  man's  body,  at  sixty 
paces,   at   every   shot,   with   Colt's  army  revolver,    not  taking 


616  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

steady  aim,  but  firing  at  the  jerk  of  the  arm.  He  did  not  be- 
lieve that  any  dueling-pistol  could  be  fired  with  more  accuracy. 

This  pistol  episode  was  almost  the  only  entertainment  in 
which  the  passengers  engaged  themselves,  except  eating,  drink- 
ing, smoking,  conversation,  and  card-playing.  Gambling  was 
constantly  going  on,  day  and  night.  I  don't  think  there  was  an 
interruption  to  it  of  fifteen  minutes  in  three  days.  The  conversa- 
tion was  almost  exclusively  confined  to  the  topics  of  steam-boats, 
liquors,  cards,  black-land,  red-land,  bottom-land,  timber-land, 
warrants  and  locations,  sugar,  cotton,  corn,  and  negroes. 

After  the  first  night,  I  preferred  to  sleep  on  the  trunks  in  the 
social  hall,  rather  than  among  the  cots,  in  the  crowded  cabin, 
and  several  others  did  the  same.  There  were,  in  fact,  not  cots 
enough  for  all  the  passengers  excluded  from  the  state-rooms.  I 
found  that  some,  and  I  presume  most  of  the  passengers,  by 
making  the  clerk  believe  that  they  would  otherwise  take  the 
Swamp  Fox,  had  obtained  their  passage  at  considerably  less 
price  than  I  had  paid. 

On  the  third  day,  just  after  the  dinner-bell  had  rung,  and 
most  of  the  passengers  had  gone  into  the  cabin,  I  was  sitting 
alone  on  the  gallery,  reading  a  pamphlet,  when  a  well-dressed, 
middle-aged  man  accosted  me. 

"Is  that  the  book  they  call  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  you  are  read- 
ing, sir?" 

"No,  sir." 

"  I  did  not  know  but  it  was ;  I  see  that  there  are  two  or  three 
gentlemen  on  board  that  have  got  it.  I  suppose  I  might  have 
got  it  in  New  Orleans :  I  wish  I  had.  Have  you  ever  seen  it, 
sir?" 

"  Yes,  sir." 


LOUISIANA.  617 

"  I'm  told  it  shows  up  Slavery  in  very  high  colors." 

"  Yes,  sir,  it  shows  the  evils  of  Slavery  very  strongly." 

He  took  a  chair  near  rne,  and  said  that,  if  it  represented  ex- 
treme cases  as  if  they  were  general,  it  was  not  fair. 

Perceiving  that  he  was  disposed  to  discuss  the  matter,  I  said 
that  I  was  a  Northern  man,  and  perhaps  not  very  well  ahle  to 
judge ;  but  that  I  thought  that  a  certain  degree  of  cruelty  was 
necessary  to  make  slave-labor  profitable,  and  that  not  many 
were  disposed  to  be  more  severe  than  they  thought  necessary. 
I  believed  there  was  very  little  wanton  cruelty. 

He  answered,  that  northern  men  were  much  mistaken  in  sup- 
posing that  slaves  were  generally  ill-treated.  He  was  a  mer- 
chant, and  owned  a  plantation,  and  he  just  wished  I  could  see 
his  negroes. 

"  Why,  sir,"  said  he,  "  my  niggers'  children  all  go  regularly 
to  a  Sunday-school,  just  the  same  as  my  own,  and  learn  verses, 
and  catechism,  and  hymns.  Every .  one  of  my  grown-up  nig- 
gers are  pious,  every  one  of  them,  and  members  of  the  church. 

I've  got  an  old  man  that  can  pray well,  sir,  I  only  wish  I 

had  as  good  a  gift  at  praying!  I  wish  you  could  just  hear  him 
pray.  There  are  cases  in  which  niggers  are  badly  used ;  but 
they  are  not  common.  There  are  brutes  everywhere.  Tou 
have  men,  at  the  North,  who  whip  their  wives — and  they  kill 
them,  sometimes." 

"  Certainly,  we  have,  sir  ;  there  are  plenty  of  brutes  at  the 
North;  but  our. law,  you  must  remember,  does  not  compel 
women  to  submit  themselves  to  their  power,  nor  refuse  to 
receive  their  testimony  against  them.  A  wife,  cruelly  treated, 
can  escape  from  her  husband,  and  can  compel  him  to  give  her 
subsistence,  anc1  to  cease  from  doing  her  harm.     A  woman  could 


618  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

defend  herself  against  her  husband's  cruelty,  and  the  law  would 
sustain  her." 

"It  would  not  be  safe  to  receive  negroes'  testimony  against 
white  people ;  they  would  be  always  plotting  against  their 
masters,  if  you  did." 

"  Wives  are  not  always  plotting  against  their  husbands." 

"  Husband  and  wife  is  a  very  different  thing  from  master  and 
slave." 

"  Your  remark,  that  a  bad  man  might  whip  his  wife,  suggested 
an  analogy,  sir." 

"  If  the  law  was  to  forbid  whipping  altogether,  the  authority 
of  the  master  would  be  at  an  end." 

"  And  if  you  allow  bad  men  to  own  slaves,  and  allow  them  to 
whip  them,  and  deny  the  slave  the  privilege  of  resisting  cruelty, 
and  refuse  testimony,  except  from  those  most  unlikely  to  witness 
cruelty  from  a  master,  on  his  own  plantation,  to  his  own  slave, 
do  you  not  show  that  you  think  it  is  necessary  to  permit  cruelty, 
in  order  to  sustain  the  authority  of  masters,  in  general,  over  their 
slaves  ?  That  is,  you  establish  cruelty  as  a  necessity  of  Slavery 
— do  you  not  ?" 

"  No  more  than  it  is  ■  of  marriage,  because  men  may  whip 
their  wives  cruelly." 

"  Excuse  me,  sir ;  the  law  does  all  it  can,  to  prevent  cruelty 
between  husband  and  wife ;  between  master  and  slave  it  does 
not,  because  it  cannot,  without  weakening  the  necessary  authori- 
ty of  the  master — that  is,  without  destroying  Slavery.  It  is, 
therefore,  a  fair  argument  against  Slavery,  to  show  how  cruelly 
this  necessity,  of  sustaining  the  authority  of  cruel  and  passionate 
men  over  their  slaves,  sometimes  operates.  Some  people  have 
thought  that  a  similar  argument  lay  against  some  of  our  North- 


LOUISIANA.  619 

ern  laws,  with  regard  to  marriage.  No  one  objected  to  the  case 
being  argued,  and  scores  of  books,  some  of  them  novels,  have 
been  written  about  it ;  and,  in  consequence,  these  laws  have 
been  repealed,  and  marriage  has  become  a  simple  civil  contract, 
with  every  relic  of  involuntary  servitude  abolished,  as  far  as 
the  civil  law   is  concerned." 

He  asked  what  it  was  Uncle  Tom  "  tried  to  make  out." 

I  narrated  the  Eed  Eiver  episode,  and  asked  if  such  things 
could  not  possibly  occur. 

"  Yes,"  replied  he  ;  "  but  very  rarely.  I  don't  know  a  man, 
in  my  parish,  that  could  do  such  a  thing.     There  are   two  men, 

though,  in -,  bad  enough  to  do  it,  I  believe ;  but  it  isn't 

a  likely  story,  at  all.  In  the  first  place,  no  colored  woman 
would  be  likely  to  offer  any  resistance,  if  a  white  man  should 
want  to  seduce  her." 

After  further  conversation,  he  said,  that  a  planter  had  been 
tried  for  injuring  one  of  his  negroes,  at  the  Court  in  his  parish, 
the  preceding  summer.  He  had  had,  among  his  girls,  a  favorite, 
and  suspecting  that  she  was  unduly  kind  to  one  of  his  men, 
under  an  impulse  of  jealousy,  he  mutilated  him.  There  was  not 
sufficient  testimony  to  convict  him  ;  "  but,"  he  said  "  everybody 
believes  he  was  guilty,  and  ought  to  have  been  punished.  No- 
body thinks  there  was  any  good  reason  for  his  being  jealous  of 
the  boy." 

I  said  this  story  corroborated  the  truthfulness  of  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin ;  it  showed  that  it  was  all  possible. 

"Yes,"  he  answered,  "perhaps  it  may;  but,  then,  nobody 
would  have  any  respect  for  a  man  that  would  treat  his  niggers 
cruelly." 

I  wondered,  as  I  went  into  dinner,  and  glanced  at  the  long 


620  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

rows  of  surly  faces,  how  many  men  there  were  there,  whose 
passions  would  be  much  restrained  by  the  fear  of  losing  the 
respect  of  their  neighbors.* 

I  think  very  few  of  them  would  be  very  much  controlled  by 
such  an  influence,  but  I  should  do  them  injustice  if  I  neglected 
to  add  my  conviction,  that  as  a  general  rule  the  slaves  of  this 
rough,  strait-forward  pioneer  class,  enjoy  privileges  and  are  less 
liable  to  severe  labor  or  excessive  punishment  than  the  majority 
of  those  belonging  to  wealthy  proprietors,  who  work  on  large 
plantations  under  overseers.  They  are  less  well  provided  for  and 
are  more  neglected  in  every  way ;  but  I  am  inclined  to  think  that 
the  greatest  kindness  that  can  be  done  to  a  slave,  is  to  neglect 
him  and  so  encourage,  if  not  force  him,  to  exereise  some  care 
over  himself. 

My  original  purpose  had  been  to  go  high  up  Eed  Eiver  at 
this  time,  but  the  long  delay  in  the  boat's  leaving  New  Orleans, 
and  her  slow  passage,  obliged  me  to  change  my  plans,  and  I  went 
no  further  than  Grand  Ecore.  It  was  not  till  the  following 
antumn  that  I  was  able  to  proceed  beyond  there. 

ANOTHER   SORT    OF   CRAFT. 

When  I  returned  to  New  Orleans  I  did  so  by  the  steam-boat 
Dalmau — a  very  pleasant  and  orderly  boat,  with  very  polite  and 
obliging  officers.  The  company  of  passengers  was  also  an  agree- 
able one,  a  large  number  of  them  being  wealthy  planters  with 
their  families,  generally  intelligent  and  somewhat  cultivated  peo- 


*  John  Randolph,  of  Roanoke,  once  said,  on  the  floor  of  Congress  (touching 
the  internal  slave-trade) :  "  What  are  the  trophies  of  this  infernal  traffic?  The 
handcuff,  the  manacles,  the  blood-stained  cowhide.  What  man  is  worse  received 
in  society  for  being  a  hard  master  ?  Who  denies  the  hand  of  sister  or  daughter 
to  such  monsters  ?" 


LOUISIANA.  621 

pie.  Many  were  of  French  descent,  and  a  few  could  not  speak 
English. 

A  gentleman,  northern  born,  who  had  been  liberally  educated 
in  New  England,  and  had  traveled  abroad,  but  had  been  some 
years  living  in  Texas,  observed  to  me,  that  he  thought  Carlyle 
had  said  the  best  thing  for  Slavery,  and  acknowledged  himself  a 
disciple  to  his  views  of  it.  He  thought  labor  of  mind  and  body, 
directed  to  the  development  of  the  material  of  man's  comfort 
(and  so  to  his  mental  and  moral  progress),  was  what  was  most 
needed  of  all  men.  The  negroes  in  Africa  were  doing  nothing 
for  the  world.  If  Slavery  should  be  abolished,  those  here  would, 
he  assumed,  do  nothing.  As  they  are,  they  are  doing  much. 
It  was  best  for  the  world  that  Slavery  should  continue,  and  there- 
fore, we  must  rest  content  with  a  rather  low  standard  of  men- 
tal attainments  and  moral  character,  which  he  admitted  prevailed 
in  the  Slave  States.  It  was  Utopian  to  ask  for  the  same  manifes- 
tation of  civilization  at  the  South,  that  might  be  aimed  at  in  a 
free  country ;  but  if  it  were  not  for  the  South  and  its  Slavery, 
the  aims  of  the  Free  States  would  be  also  Utopian.  Moral  and 
intellectual  improvement,  at  the  North  and  in  Europe,  was  based, 
in  a  degree,  on  cheap  cotton  and  so  on  Slavery.  Men  gave  more 
time  to  study  and  thought,  because  they  gave  less  to  providing 
themselves  with  shirts. 

He  thought  there  was  certainly  progress  and  improvement  at 
the  South,  and  it  would  continue  ;  but  it  was  much  more  limited, 
and  less  calculated  upon  and  provided  for,  than  at  the  North. 
And  while  the  chief  labor  was  done  by  slaves,  and  they  remained 
a  large  proportion  of  the  people,  there  could  be  no  almospJiere  of 
progress  and  improvement,  as  where  all  men  were  desirous  and 
able  to  improve,  and  the  interests  of  each  were  favored  by  the 


622  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

improvement  in  every  way  of  all.  At  the  North  there  was  a  con- 
stant electric  current  of  progress,  which  no  man  could  resist 
being  moved  by.  At  the  South,  every  second  man  was  a  non- 
conductor and  broke  the  chain.  Individuals  at  the  South  were 
enterprising,  but  they  could  move  only  themselves. 

He  had  little  respect  for  the  religion  which  the  negroes 
acquired  in  Slavery.  They  learned  to  copy  the  manifesta- 
tions of  religion  of  the  whites  in  a  parrot-like  way,  and  connect- 
ed these  manifestations  with  excitements  of  mind  and  body, 
which  were  no  way  essentially  different,  or  of  higher  nature  than 
those  which  all  savage  tribes  were  accustomed  to  connect  with 
their  heathen  worship. 

But  materially  they  were  vastly  better  off  than  savages. 
They  were,  generally  well  provided  for,  and  seldom  suffered  from 
hunger  and  cold,  as  savages  constantly  did.  He  thought  the 
wild,  hard  Texas  men  made  the  best  of  masters  ;  and  the  slaves 
were,  in  general,  better  treated  in  Texas  than  in  any  other  part 
of  the  South. 

There  were  occasional  exceptions,  certainly.  One  had  occurred 
lately  near  Nacogdoches.  A  man  had  tied  up  a  slave  in  a  fit  of 
anger,  and  had  drawn  a  live  cat  down  his  back,  so  she  would 
strike  her  claws  into  his  skin  and  tear  it.  The  slave  was  seri- 
ously injured ;  and  it  having  become  notorious  how  he  was 
injured,  his  master  was  brought  to  a  regular  trial.  He  had  not 
been  convicted,  for  want  of  sufficient  legal  evidence ;  but  there 
was  so  great  popular  indignation,  that  he  would  have  to  move 
out  of  that  region  of  country,  to  save  himself  from  a  lynching. 
I  think  he  said  this  man's  anger  was  also  founded  on  jealousy. 

He  sneered  at  any  other  defense  of  Slavery,  than  the  utilita- 
rian one.    Every  man  in  the  world  ought  to  work  for  the  benefit 


LOUISIANA.  623 

of  mankind  at  large,  as  well  as  himself — the  negroes  would  noft 
do  so,  unless  they  were  forced  to,  and  Slavery  was  justified  by 
its  results,  not  to  the  South  but  to  the  world.  It  was  nonsense 
to  say  that  Slavery  was  sustained  for  the  benefit  of  the  negro. 
It  was  unsafe  and  would  be  uneconomical,  and,  therefore,  bad 
for  the  world  at  large,  to  give  the  negro  knowledge  and  to  improve 
his  intelligence.  If  he  should  be  systematically  instructed  in 
matters,  safe  in  themselves  for  him  to  be  informed  upon,  as  the 
Bible,  for  instance,  he  would  instruct  himself  in  other  matters, 
and  would  soon  get  beyond  the  control  of  the  whites,  who  re- 
tained authority  over  him  only  by  their  superior  intelligence 
and  knowledge. 

There  was  no  need  to  pretend  that  the  negro  was  incapable 
of  being  greatly  improved.  No  men  improved  faster  under 
favorable  circumstances.  The  difference  between  town-bred  and 
plantation-bred  slaves,  in  point  of  general  intelligence,  was 
always  very  striking.  He  had  been  in  business  intercourse  for 
many  years  with  a  gentleman  whose  book-keeping  and  corre- 
spondence had  been  almost  altogether  carried  on  by  a  slave,  and 
it  was  admirably  done ;  his  manner  of  expression  was  terse, 
pointed,  and  appropriate,  and  his  business  abilities  every  way 
admirable.  His  owner  could  not  possibly  have  obtained  more 
valuable  services  from  a  Avhite  clerk. 

He  owned  but  one  slave  himself,  and  that  was  an  old  woman, 
whom  he  had  bought  purely  from  motives  of  compassion.  He 
had  supported  her  for  several  years,  and  had  never  received  the 
smallest  return  from  her  labor. 

"  If  you  are  right  in  your  justification  of  Slavery,"  said  I, 
"why  not  knock  her  in  the  head?  She's  no  longer  of  any  use 
to  the  world,  only  an  incumbrance,  using  a  certain  amount  of 


624  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

corn  and  cotton,  which  would  otherwise  go  to  make  study 
cheaper,  and  so  advance  the  general  improvement  of  the  world." 

"  Yes,"  he  replied,  laughing,  "  but  then  we  can't  afford  to 
throw  charity  overboard." 

"You  throw  your  theory  overboard  in  saying  so,  I  think.  To 
obtain  cheap  cotton,  you  would  throw  overboard  all  political 
morality.     I  think  it  a  dear  bargain." 

Would  throw  overboard  all  compromises  and  compacts,  I 
might  have  added,  when  they  stood  in  the  way  of  greater  profit 
from  Slavery. 

But  he  said  it  was  fanaticism,  not  morality,  that  would  be 
thrown  overboard.  Prudence  would  retain  Slavery,  and  sensible 
morality  with  it.  And  on  this  point  we  agreed,  with  great 
friendliness,  to  differ. 

EIGOLET    DU    BON    DIEU    AND    CANE   RIVER. 

At  Grand  Ecore,  the  Eecl  Eiver  divides  into  two  streams, 
which  reunite  some  forty  miles  below ;  one  of  these,  called 
Cane  Eiver,  which  was  formerly  the  principal  channel,  is  now 
only  navigable  when  Eed  Eiver  is  running  above  its  ordinary 
level ;  and  the  other,  called  Eigolet  du  Bon  Dieu  (streamlet  of 
the  good  God),  takes,  at  low  stages,  sometimes  even  the  whole 
stream. 

At  Nachitoches,  a  few  miles  below  Grand  Ecore,  on  Cane 
Eiver,  I  found  a  very  good  hotel,  kept  by  a  Mr.  Brown,  and 
remained  several  days.  As  is  very  frequently  the  case  in  South- 
ern towns,  the  hotel  had  no  bar-room  in  it ;  but  the  guests  went 
to  a  large  public  bar-room,  in  the  immediate  vicinity,  for  lunch 
and  drink.  This  bar-room  had  a  billiard-room  connected  with 
it,  and  was  kept  by  a  Frenchman,  and  French  wines  seemed  to 


LOUISIANA.  625 

be  more  consumed  in  it  than  whisky,  or  fiercer  liquids.  At  the 
hotel,  bottles  of  claret  and  sauterne  were  placed  upon  the  table 
at  dinner,  for  the  free  use  of  the  guests,  and  the  same  custom 
prevails  on  most  of  the  Louisiana  steam-boats.*  Even  on  the  St. 
Charles,  claret  was  every  day  placed  upon  the  table,  and  I 
noticed  that  the  coarse  Texans,  who  most  patronized  the  bar, 
and  whose  stomachs  were  most  seared  with  whisky,  availed 
themselves  very  little  of  it.  Light  wines  are  much  more 
extensively  consumed  in  Louisiana  than  anywhere  else  in 
the  United  States.  In  summer,  among  the  Creoles  and  the 
wealthier  Americans,  claret  is  the  usual  drink  at  breakfast. 
The  cheapness  with  which  it  can  be  imported,  removes  the 
temptation  to  deleterious  adulterations,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
that  it  is  far  more  wholesome  than  water,  or  any  of  the  ordi- 
nary beverages ;  while  its  habitual  use,  like  that  of  light  malt 
liquors,  seems  to  generally  satisfy  that  universal  demand  for 
stimulants  which  in  America,  more  than  anywhere  else  in  the 
world,  leads  mankind  so  strongly  to  gluttony,  by  which  it  is 
deadened,  or  to  intemperance  in  the  use  of  strong  drinks,  or  to 
habitual  excessive  nervous  or  mental  excitements — more  or  less 
akin  to  insanity.  I  question  much,  if  tea,  or  coffee,  or  tobacco, 
as  ordinarily  used,  or  excessive  labor,  mental  or  bodily,  is  not 
worse  in  its  effects  than  claret  and  beer,  as  ordinarily  used  in 
countries  where  these  are  cheap,  and  in  general  use.  Insanity, 
fanaticisms,  dyspepsia,  and  the  disease  of  drunkenness  are  not 
unknown  in  those  countries,  but  are  much  less  common  than  in 
the  United  States,  and  claret  and  beer  drinkers  are  less  liable  to 
them,  I  think,  than  others.  Different  climates  and  different  con- 
stitutions, however,  evidently  demand  difference  of  stimuli,  as  of 

food. 

27 


626  OUR    SLAVE    STATES. 

Wholesome  water  and  wholesome  fresh  fruits  are  not  to  be 
obtained  by  the  traveler,  in  the  largest  part  of  the  United  States. 
Bacon,  fat  and  salt,  is  the  stock  article  of  diet.  He  must  satisfy 
his  appetite  with  this,  or  with  coarse  or  most  indigestible  forms 
of  bread.  In  either  case  he  will  have  an  unnatural  thirst,  and 
the  only  means  ordinarily  offered  him  at  country  houses,  for 
satisfying  this,  will  be  an  exceedingly  dirty  and  unpalatable 
decoction  of  coffee,  of  which  the  people  usually  consume  an  ex- 
cessive quantity,  or  alcoholic  liquors,  of  the  most  fiery  and 
pernicious  description. 

There  is  no  reason,  I  believe,  why  every  farmer  in  the  United 
States  should  not  now  make  a  wine  for  his  own  family  use, 
which,  with  most  persons,  would  be  most  advantageously  and 
economically  substituted  for  coffee  and  tea,  and  which  use 
would  soon  make  more  palatable  than  any  other  beverage,  for 
ordinary  purposes.  I  do  not  suppose  that  the  general  use  of 
light  wines  would  entirely  prevent  drunkenness.  The  drunkard 
is  a  diseased  person,  and  drunkenness  prevails  more  in  the 
United  States  than  elsewhere,  from  those  peculiarities,  whatever 
they  are,  of  climate  and  circumstances,  which  produce  habits  of 
greater  rapidity  and  intensity  of  action  in  the  people,  from  the 
want  of  satisfactory  social  recreations — the  church  and  the  bar- 
room being,  in  many  communities,  the  only  general  friendly 
meeting-ground — and  from  ignorance  of,  and  inability  to  procure 
simple  and  delicate  food  and  stimulants,  and,  at  the  South 
especially,  from  an  entire  absence  of  education,  among  the 
whites,  to  self-control.  Immigrants,  who  have  no  advantage 
over  us,  as  the  poor  generally  have  not,  in  this  last  particular, 
are  even  more  subject  to  the  disease  of  drunkenness,  after  they 
have  been  here  a  few  years,  than  natives.  " 


LOUISIANA.  627 

The  intelligent  foreigner,  unless  he  has  unusual  opportu- 
nities of  observing  the  fearful  prevalence  and  virulence,  and 
uncontro liability  of  the  drunkard's  disease  in  our  climate, 
generally  deems  the  Maine  Law  wholly  unjustifiable,  and  is 
astonished  that  it  can  be  favored  at  all,  by  intelligent  citizens  ; 
but  he,  invariably,  soon  deduces,  from  his  personal  experience,  a 
necessity  for  changing  the  character  of  his  stimulants,  or  of  con- 
siderably lessening  the  quantity  he  shall  use  of  those  to  which 
he  is  accustomed.  Otherwise,  he  also  soon  becomes  a  fanatic, 
a  dyspeptic,  or  a  drunkard. 

The  Maine  Law,  while  it  will — in  those  communities  where  it 
can  be  enforced — restore  many  drunkards,  may,  perhaps,  in  the 
long  run,  lead  to  the  prevalence  of  other  excitements,  not  less 
immoral  or  unhealthy  than  drunkenness,  though  less  obviously 
and  notoriously  so.  What  our  people  want,  is  less  the  removal 
of  certain  temptations,  than  the  ability  and  the  knowledge  to 
satisfy  the  demands  of  their  nature  in  a  healthy  way.  Certain 
elements  of  civilization  are  more  diffused,  in  some  parts  of  our 
country,  than  they  are  anywhere  in  Europe;  but  others  are 
wanting,  more  than  anywhere  else  in  the  world.  Our  civilization 
is  one-sided,  irregular,  and  awkward.  We  must  grow  accus- 
tomed to  exhaust  our  judgment  and  self-control  less  in  matters 
of  pure  business,  and  to  apply  it  more  to  religion  and  politics 
and  the  good  government  of  our  individual  bodies  and  minds, 
with  their  various  appetites,  impulses,  functions,  and  longings. 
Our  needed  temperance  reformation  is  not  to  stand  on  one  leg. 
Amputation  of  a  vicious  habit  does  not  remove  vice  from  the 
system.  Little  good  will  be  done  by  an  attempt  to  remove 
the  sustenance  of  disease,  if  the  food  of  health  is  not  pro- 
vided. 


628  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

THE    LOWER   RED    RIYER   COUNTRY. 

The  Red  River  bottoms  are  nearly  the  best  cotton  lands  in  the 
world;  but  the  crops  suffer  upon  them,  in  a  wet  season,  and 
sometimes  are  totally  destroyed  by  "the  rot,"  or  "the  worm." 
The  production,  on  the  old  plantations,  already  falls  far  below 
what  it  was  formerly — but  deep  plowing  will  at  once  restore 
their  fertility  ;  the  soil  being  of  unknown  depth.  Earth,  from  the 
bottom  of  a  well,  forty-three  feet  deep,  is  found  to  produce  an 
excessively  rank  growth  of  the  cotton-plant,  though  the  pro- 
duction of  cotton  wool  upon  it  is  very  small.  Land,  on  the 
river,  is  now  worth  from  $15  to  $40  an  acre.  Improved  plant- 
ations average,  perhaps,  $20  in  value. 

At  a  distance  of  a  mile  or  two  from  the  river-bottoms,  in 
the  vicinity  of  Nachitoches,  the  land  rises  into  low,  sandy  bills, 
bearing  pine,  and  some  oak.  Only  superior  tracts  of  this  are 
cultivated ;  the  cotton  produced  is  of  shorter  staple,  and  the  crop 
is  smaller,  but  more  uniform,  being  much  less  injured  by  heavy 
rains,  and  other  contingencies.  This  land  is  worth  from  $2  to 
$6  an  acre,  and  is  comparatively  healthy.  Much  the  larger 
part  of  it  belongs  to  the  State,  and  is  of  use  only  for  grazing, 
and  for  this  is  of  but  littlevalue.  Considerable  herds  of  poor 
cattle  are,  however,  kept  upon  it,  by  men  who  make  it  their 
business,  and  who,  if  they  have  any  farms,  raise  nothing  but 
maize  upon  them.  They  seldom  own  slaves,  or  more  than  a 
single  family  of  them  for  house-servants,  but  hire  Spaniards,  to 
assist  them  in  herding  cattle. 

The  "range"  is  said  to  be  very  much  worse  than  formerly, 
and  the  quality  of  the  cattle  to  have  greatly  deteriorated  within 
twenty  years;  yet  they  looked  to  me  superior  to  any  I  had  seen 
previously  in  the  South. 


LOUISIANA. 


629 


Walking  out,  on  Sunday,  in  the  country,  I  came  by  chance 
upon  the  negro  quarters  of  a  large  plantation,  which  were  built 
right  upon  what  appeared  to  be  a  public  road.  They  were  appa- 
rently intended  for  the  accommodation  of  about  one  hundred 
slaves.  The  residents  were  mending  clothes,  washing,  and  cook- 
ing, and  looked  well-fed  and  contented.  They  were  generally 
Creoles,  and  spoke  English,  French,  and  Spanish,  among  them- 
selves.    The  cabins  were  small,  built  mostly  of  hewn  plank,  set 


upright,  and  chinked  with  rags  and  mud,  roofed  with  split  clap- 
boards, and  provided  with  stick  and  mud  chimney.  There  was 
but  one  room,  and  no  loft,  to  each  cabin ;  or,  where  there  were 
two  rooms,  they  were  occupied  by  two  families.  Several  of 
them,  into  which,  without  intrusion,  I  was  able  to  see,  were 
very  destitute  of  furniture— nothing  being  perceptible  but  two 
very  dirty  beds,  and  a  few  rude  stools,   standing  upon  a  bare 


630  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

earth  floor.  There  was  no  window,  of  any  kind — all  light  and 
ventilation  being  by  the  door  or  chimney.  In  one,  a  curtain  or 
screen,  of  gunny-bagging,  was  hung  across  the  doorway.  In 
another,  I  saw  a  shelf  of  crockery.  On  another  large  planta- 
tion, I  observed  remarkably  comfortable,  though  cheap  and 
rude,  quarters  for  the  negroes — each  cabin  being  of  good  size, 
with  brick  chimney,  and  a  broad  shed  or  gallery  before  the 
door. 

While  returning  to  town,  I  met  six  negroes — one  of  them  a 
woman — riding  on  horseback.  Soon  afterwards  I  saw  them  stop, 
and  two  rode  back  some  distance,  and  then  raced  their  horses, 
the  others  cheering,  as  they  passed  them.  Nearer  town,  I  met 
a  group  of  boys  and  children — among  them  English,  Spanish, 
and  mulattoes — carrying  several  game  cocks  under  their  arms, 
and  evidently  being  about  to  set  them  to  fighting.  Two  negroes 
that  I  met,  carried  guns.  During  the  day  many  negroes  were  in 
town,  peddling  eggs,  nuts,  brooms,  and  fowls.  I  looked  into  the 
cathedral,  and  found  a  respectable,  and — viewed  from  behind  their 
backs — very  New  England-like  congregation,  listening  atten- 
tively to  *a  sermon  from  an  animated  Frenchman.  The  negroes 
and  all  colored  persons  occupied  distinct  seats  from  the  whites. 
There  is,  besides  this  Eomish  cathedral,  a  little  Episcopal  chapel, 
twenty  feet  by  forty  in  size,  but  I  believe  no  other  church  in  the 
town. 

SECRET    AGENTS. 

I  was  told  that  there  was  more  morality,  and  more  immorality 
in  Nachitoches  than  in  almost  any  other  place  of  its  size  in  the 
United  States ;  and  that  in  Alexandria,  a  town  some  distance 
below  it,  on  Eed  Eiver,  there  was  about  as  much  immorality 
without  any  morality  at  all. 


LOUISIANA.  Gui 

Two  drovers  were  sitting  by  the  fire,  waiting  for  breakfast, 
at  the  hotel ;  one,  who  looked  and  spoke  more  like  a  New- 
Englander  than  a  Southerner,  said  to  the  other  : 

"  I  had  a  high  old  dream,  last  night." 

"What  was  it?" 

"  Dreamt  I  was  in  hell." 

"Bough  country  ?" 

"  Boggy — sulphur  bogs.  By-and-by  I  came  to  a  great  pair 
of  doors.  Something  kinder  drew  me  right  to  'em,  and  I  had  to 
open  'em,  and  go  in.  As  soon  as  I  got  in,  the  doors  slammed 
to,  behind  me,  and  there  I  see  old  boss  Devil  lying  asleep, 
on  a  red  hot  sofy.  He  woke  up,  and  rubbed  his  eyes,  and  when 
he  see  me,  he  says,  '  Halloo  !  that  you  V  '  Yes,  sir,'  says  I. 
'  Where'd  you  come  from  ?'  says  he.  '  From  Alexandria,  sir,' 
says  I,  '  I  thought  so,'  says  he,  and  he  took  down  a  big  book, 
and  wrote  something  in  it  with  a  red  hot  spike.  '  Well,  sir 
what's  going  on  now  in  Alexandria  ?'  says  he.  '  Having  a  pro- 
tracted meeting  there,  sir,'  says  I.  '  Look  here,  my  friend,'  says 
he,  'you  may  stop  lying,  now  you've  got  here.'  'I  aint  lying, 
sir,'  says  I.  '  Oh !'  says  he,  '  I  beg  your  pardon ;  I  thought  it 
was  Alexandria  on  Bed  Biver,  you  meant.'  '  So  it  was,'  says  I, 
'  and  they  are  having  a  protracted  meeting  there,  as  sure  as 
you're  alive.'  'Hell  they  are!'  says  he,  jumpin'  right  up; 
'  boy,  bring  my  boots !'  A  little  black  devil  fetched  him  a 
pair  of  hot  brass  boots,  and  he  began  to  draw  'em  on.  '  Whose 
doin'  is  that?'  says  he.  'Elder  Slocum's,  sir,'  says  I. 
'Elder  Slocum's!  Why  in  hell  couldn't  you  have  said  so, 
before?'  says  he;  'no  use  in  my  goin'  if  he's  round;  here,  boy, 
take  away  these  boots ;'  and  he  kicked  'em  off',  and  laid  clown 
again." 


•032  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

SPANISH    CREOLES. 

French  blood  rather  predominates  in  the  population  in  the 
vicinity  of  Nachitoches,  but  there  is  also  a  considerable  amount 
of  the  Spanish  and  Indian  mongrel  breed.  These  are  often  hand- 
some people,  but  vagabonds,  almost  to  a  man.  Scarcely  any  of 
them  have  any  regular  occupation,  unless  it  be  that  of  herding 
cattle ;  but  they  raise  a  little  maize,  and  fish  a  little,  and  hunt  a 
little,  and  smoke  and  lounge  a  great  deal,  and  are  very  regular 
in  their  attendance  on  divine  worship,  at  the  cathedral. 

In  the  public  bar-room  I  heard  a  person,  who  I  suppose  would 
claim  the  appellation  of  a  gentleman,  narrating  how  he  had  over- 
reached a  political  opponent,  in  securing  the  "  Spanish  vote"  at 
an  election,  and  it  appeared  from  the  conversation  that  it  was 
considered  entirely,  and  as  a  matter  of  course,  purchasable  by 
the  highest  bidder.  A  man  who  would  purchase  votes  at  the 
North,  would  be  very  careful  not  to  mention  it  publicly. 

The  children  in  the  streets  speak  Spanish,  and  French,  and 
English,  with  the  negro  dialect,  indifferently ;  and  a  school- 
house  exposes  a  sign,  "  Ecole  Primaire  Anglais  et  Franjais." 

There  are  also  a  considerable  number  of  Italians  in  this 
neighborhood.  Some  of  them  are  refugee  revolutionists.  The 
men  are  chiefly  mechanics,  and  are  represented  to  be  well- 
behaved  and  valuable  citizens.  I  have  met  one  who,  coming 
from  Trieste,  could  speak  Italian,  German,  French,  Eussian,  and 
English.  Yankees,  of  course,  there  are,  and  Anglo-Saxon 
Americans  from  every  quarter.  The  slaves  are,  some  French 
and  Spanish  Creole  negroes,  and  many  from  "  Old  Virginny." 

GALLIC    AND    HISPANO-AFRIC    CREOLES. 

There  are  also,  in  the  vicinity,  a  large  number  of  free-colored 


LOUISIANA. 

planters.  In  going  down  Cane  Kiver,  the  Dalmau  called  at 
several  of  their  plantations,  to  take  on  cotton,  and  the  captain 
told  me  that  in  fifteen  miles  of  a  well-settled  and  cultivated 
country,  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  beginning  ten  miles  below 
Nachitoches,  he  did  not  know  but  one  pure-blooded  white  man. 
The  plantations  appeared  no  way  different  from  the  generality 
of  those  of  the  white  Creoles ;  and  on  some  of  them  were  large, 
handsome,  and  comfortable  houses.  These  free-colored  people 
are  all  descended  from  the  progeny  of  old  French  or  Spanish 
planters,  and  their  negro  slaves.  Such  a  progeny,  born  before 
Louisiana  was  annexed  to  the  United  States,  and  the  descend- 
ants of  it,  are  entitled  to  freedom. 

The  first  person  of  whom  I  made  inquiries  about  them,  at 
Nachitoches,  told  me  that  they  were  a  lazy,  beastly  set — slaves 
and  all  on  an  equality,  socially — no  order  or  discipline  on  their 
plantations,  but  everything  going  to  ruin.  Also  that  they  had 
sore  eyes,  and  lost  their  teeth  early,  and  had  few  children,  and 
showed  other  scrofulous  symptoms,  and  evidences  of  weak  con- 
stitution, as  Professor  Cartwright  says  they  must.  I  think  this 
gentleman  must  have  read  De  Bow's  Review,  and  taken  these 
facts  for  granted,  without  personal  knowledge;  for  neither  my 
own  observation,  nor  any  information  that  I  could  obtain  from 
others,  at  all  confirmed  his  statement.  Two  merchants,  to  whom 
I  had  letters  of  introduction,  and  to  whom  I  repeated  them, 
assured  me  that  they  were  entirely  imaginary.  They  had  ex- 
tensive dealings  with  the  colored  planters,  and  were  confident 
that  they  enjoyed  better  health  than  the  whites  living  in  their 
vicinity.  They  could  not  recollect  a  single  instance  of  those 
indications  of  weak  constitution  which  had  been  mentioned  to 

me.      The  colored  planters,  within  their  knowledge,  had  large 

27* 


634  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

and  healthy  families  ;  they  were  honest,  and  industrious,  and 
paid  their  debts  quite  as  punctually  as  the  white  planters,  and 
were,  so  far  as  they  could  judge,  without  an  intimate  acquaint 
ance,  good  citizens,  in  all  respects.  One  of  them  had  lately 
spent  $40,000  in  a  law  suit,  and  it  was  believed  that  they  were 
increasing  in  wealth.  If  you  have  occasion  to  call  at  their 
houses,  I  was  told,  you  will  be  received  in  a  gentlemanly  man- 
ner, and  find  they  live  in  the  same  style  with  white  people  of 
the  same  wealth.  They  speak  French  among  themselves,  but 
all  are  able  to  converse  in  English  also,  and  many  of  them  are 
well  educated. 

The  driver  of  the  stage  from  Nachitoches  towards  Alexandria, 
described  them  as  being  rather  distant  and  reserved  towards 
white  people  with  whom  they  were  not  well  acquainted ;  but  said, 
that  he  had  often  staid  over  night  at  their  houses,  and  knew 
them  intimately,  and  he  was  nowhere  else  so  well  treated,  and  he 
never  saw  more  gentleman-like  people.  He  appeared  to  have  been 
especially  impressed  by  the  domestic  and  social  happiness  he  had 
witnessed  in  their  houses. 

The  Captain  of  the  Dalmau,  Mr.  Brown  of  the  Hotel,  and  two 
intelligent  planters,  who  had  had  frequent  opportunities  of  inter 
course  with  them,  as  far  as  their  knowledge  extended,  confirmed 
these  accounts. 

The  barber  of  the  Dalmau  was  a  handsome  light  coloured 
young  man.    While  he  was  once  dressing  my  hah'  he  said  to  me  : 

"You  are  an  Eastern  man,  I  think,  sir." 

"  Yes :  how  did  you  know  f 

•'  There's  something  in  the  appearance  of  an  Eastern  man  that 
I  generally  know  him  by." 

"  Couldn't  you  tell  me  what  it  is  ?" 


LOUISIANA.  635 

"Well,  sir,  there's  more  refinement  in  an  Eastern  man,  both 
in  his  look  and  his  manner,  than  in  a  Southerner,  in  general- 
Are  you  from  Massachusetts  or  New  York,  sir?" 

"  New  York." 

"  I  lived  in  New  York  myself,  one  year :  at  West  Troy." 

"  Ah — what  were  you  doing  there  ?" 

"  I  was  at  school,  sir." 

Perceiving  from  this  that  he  was  a  free-man,  I  asked  if  he  pre- 
ferred living  at  the  South  to  the  North.  He  said  he  didn't  like 
the  Northern  winter,  and  he  was  born  and  bred  in  Louisiana,  and 
felt  more  at  home  there.  Finally  he  said  his  best  reason  was, 
that  a  colored  man  could  make  more  money  in  Louisiana  than 
at  the  North.  There  were  no  white  barbers  there,  and  a  barber 
was  paid  nearly  four  times  as  much  for  his  work  as  he  was  at  the 
North. 

"I  presume  you  have  no  family V 

"  No,  sir." 

"  If  you  should  marry,  would  you  not  find  it  more  agreeable 
to  live  at  the  North?" 

"I'd  never  marry  in  Louisiana,  sir." 

"Why  not.'?" 

"  Because  I'd  never  be  married  to  any  but  a  virtuous  woman, 
and  there  are  no  virtuous  women  among  the  colored  people  here !" 

"What  do  you  mean?" 

"  There  are  very  few,  sir." 

"  What,  among  the  free  ?" 

"Very  few,  sir.  There  are  some  very  rich  colored  people, 
planters,  some  of  them  are  worth  four  or  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  Among  them  I  suppose  there  are  virtuous  women ;  but 
they  are  very  few.     You   see,  sir,  it's  no  disgrace  to  a  colored 


636  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

girl  to  placer.  It's  considered  hardly  anything  different  from 
marrying." 

I  asked  if  he  knew  any  of  the  colored  planters  on  Cane  Biver. 
He  did  and  had  relatives  among  them.  He  thought  there  were 
virtuous  girls  there.  They  were  rich,  too,  some  of  them.  He 
said  they  rather  avoided  white  people,  because  they  could  not 
associate  pleasantly  with  them.  They  were  uncertain  of  their 
position  with  them,  and  were  afraid,  if  they  were  not  reserved,  they 
would  be  thought  to  be  taking  liberties,  and  would  be  subject  to 
insults,  which  they  could  not  very  well  resent.  Yet  there  were 
some  white  people  that  they  knew  well,  with  whom  they  as- 
sociated a  good  deal,  and  pleasantly.  White  men,  sometimes, 
married  a  rich  colored  girl;  but  he  never  knew  a  colored  man  to 
marry  a  white  girl.  (I  subsequently  heard  of  one  such  case.) 
He  said  that  colored  people  could  associate  with  whites  much 
more  easily  and  comfortably  at  the  South  than  the  North ;  this 
was  one  reason  he  preferred  to  live  at  the  South.  He  was  kept 
at  a  greater  distance  from  white  people,  and  more  insulted,  on 
account  of  his  color,  at  the  North  than  in  Louisiana.  He  thought 
the  colored  people  at  Cane  Biver  were  thriving  and  happy,  and 
there  was  no  truth  in  Avhat  I  had  heard  about  their  health  or 
their  thriftlessness.  He  was  sure  they  were  quite  as  forehanded  as 
their  white  creole  neighbors. 

He  asked  if  I  knew  what  the  colored  people  at  the  North  had 
concluded  about  emigration.  He  did  not  incline  to  go  to  Africa 
himself;  but  he  would  like  to  live  in  a  community  where  he  was 
on  an  equality  with  the  rest,  and  he  preferred  it  should  be  in 
a  warm  climate.  He  didn't  want  to  go  out  of  the  United 
States.  He  was  an  American,  and  he  didn't  want  to  be  any- 
thing else. 


LOUISIANA.  637 

He  did  not  think  the  slaves  were  fit  to  be  freed  all  at  once. 
They  ought  to  be  somewhat  educated,  and  gradually  emanci- 
pated, and  sent  to  Africa.  They  would  never  come  to  any- 
thing here,  because  the  white  people  would  never  give  them  a 
chance. 

The  New  Orleans  correspondent  of  the  New  York  Times, 
writes,  under  date  of  April  3,  1853,  as  follows  : 

"  Last  year  an  act  was  passed,  providing  for  the  emancipation  of  slaves 
in  this  State  by  their  owners,  with  the  proviso,  that  no  emancipated 
negro  should  have  the  privilege  of  remaining  in  the  State,  who  was  not 
liberated  three  months  after  the  passage  of  the  act.  A  number  of  slaves 
who  had  purchased  themselves,  and  others  who  had  been  voluntarily 
emancipated  by  their  masters,  refused  to  take  out  their  papers,  as  the 
three  months  had  expired,  and  they  would  be  forced  to  leave  the  State. 
In  preference  to  leaving  Louisiana  for  a  Free  State,  they  had  rather  re- 
main here  under  a  nominal  Slavery ;  and  they  give  as  a  reason,  that  they 
are  better  treated  and  respected  in  the  South,  and  can  make  more  money, 
than  in  the  North  !  There  are  also  a  number  of  cases  now  in  our  Courts, 
where  negroes  are  suing  for  their  freedom,  they  having  been  once  eman- 
cipated, and  afterwards  run  off  by  parties  and  sold.  In  all  these  cases 
the  liveliest  interest  is  felt,  more  so  than  by  your  Abolitionists,  for  the 
rights  of  the  claimants.  And  there  is  no  State  in  the  Union  where  the 
rights  of  persons  of  every  description  are  more  respected  and  protected 
than  in  Louisiana  ;  but  we  want  no  insolent  interference  of  fanatics  and 
hypocritical  philanthropists." 

It  is  true,  that  the  rights  of  colored  people  to  freedom,  under 
the  laws,  are  generally  maintained  with  great  energy  in  Louisiana. 
Suits  to  recover  freedom  are  nowhere  else  so  common,  and 
nowhere  else  so  successful.  The  crime  of  kidnapping  and  selling, 
as  slaves,  persons  legally  free,  is  evidently  a  very  frequent  one. 
The  bar  of  Louisiana  is  more  talented  and  respectable  than  that 
of  any  other  Southern  State,  perhaps  than  that  of  any  State ; 
and  is  most  honorably  conservative  of  the  rights  of  the  weak. 


638  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

The  excessive  use  of  metaphors  and  figures  of  speech,  and  of 
rhodomontade,  which  characterizes  Southern  legal  oratory  in 
general,  Avill  as  surely  subject  a  lawyer  to  ridicule  among  his  breth- 
ren in  New  Orleans  as  in  New  York.  In  many  of  the  courts, 
pleadings  are  oftener  in  the  French  than  the  English  language  ; 
and  it  is  indispensable  for  a  lawyer  to  have  a  free  command 
of  both  languages. 

I  afterwards  spent  a  night  at  the  house  of  a  white  planter,  who 
told  me  that,  when  he  was  a  boy,  he  had  lived  at  Alexandria.  It 
was  then  under  the  Spanish  rule  ;  and,  "  the  people  they  was  all 
sorts.  They  was  French  and  Spanish,  and  Egyptian  and  Indian, 
and  Mulattoes  and  Niggers.'" 

"Egyptians?" 

"Yes,  there  was  some  of  the  real  old  Egyptians  there  then." 

"Where  did  they  come  from?" 

"From  some  of  the  Northern  Islands." 

"  What  language  did  they  speak  V 

"Well  they  had  a  language  of  their  own  that  some  of  'em 
ased  among  themselves ;  Egyptian,  I  suppose  it  was,  but  they 
could  talk  in  French  and  Spanish,  too." 

"  What  color  were  they  ?" 

"  They  was  black ;  but  not  very  black.  Oh !  they  was  citizens, 
as  good  as  any;  they  passed  for  white  folks." 

"  Did  they  keep  close  by  themselves,  or  did  they  intermarry 
with  white  folks?" 

"  They  married  mulattoes,  mostly,  I  believe.  There  wa3 
heaps  of  mulattoes  in  Alexandria  then — free  niggers — their 
fathers  was  French  and  Spanish  men,  and  their  mothers  right 
black  niggers.  Good  many  of  them  had  Egyptian  blood  in  'em, 
too." 


LOUISIANA.  639 

He  believed  the  Egyptians  had  disappeared  since  then.  He 
bad  lately  made  a  visit  to  Alexandria,  and  had  seen  none  of 
them.  The  free  mulattoes  were  always  healthy,  so  far  as  he  knew. 
He  thought  they  were  rather  more  healthy  tban  white  people. 
Upon  close  questioning,  he  thought  those  of  them  that  were 
nearest  to  white  were  rather  weakly.  A  good  many  that  he 
remembered  were  rich,  and  their  fathers  had  them  educated  and 
brought  up  just  as  they  did  their  white  children. 

The  Egyptians  were  probably  Spanish  Gipsies ;  though  I 
have  never  heard  of  any  of  them  being  in  America  in  any  other 
way. 

Some  time  subsequently  to  my  Red  River  trip,  I  made  a  short 
visit  to  Washington  and  Opelousas.  Washington  was  formerly 
called  Niggerville,  from  the  number  of  free  negroes  living  in  the 
village.  A  German  merchant,  living  in  Washington,  told  me 
there  were  few  now  living  in  the  place ;  but  in  the  parish  of  Ope- 
lousas (parish,  in  Louisiana,  is  equivalent  to  county)  there  were 
many.  Often,  he  said,  they  were  wealthy  and  thriving,  and  they 
owned  some  of  the  best  of  the  cotton  and  sugar  plantations. 
Some  of  them  were  educated ;  he  did  not  know  how  or  where. 
One  planter  that  he  did  business  with,  kept  his  books  and  wrote 
business-letters  in  a  better  manner  than  most  white  planters. 

Between  Washington  and  Opelousas,  a  distance  of  about  six 
miles,  if  I  recollect  rightly,  three  handsome  houses,  attached  to 
first-rate  plantations,  were  pointed  out  to  me  as  belonging  to 
free  colored  men. 

On  the  steam-boat  Alice  Glaze,  running  to  Washington,  I  no- 
ticed among  some  Creole  ladies  a  very  plainly-dressed  young 
woman,  not  as  dark  as  the  rest,  but  of  a  warmer  brown,  and  a 
more  nectarine-like  texture  of  skin,  remarkably  'well  formed,  with 


640  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

very  fine,  wavy  black  hair.  Although  she  was -plainly  dressed, 
it  was  not  until  I  saw  her  dining  between  two  perfectly  black 
women,  that  I  thought  of  her  being  a  slave.  She  was  lighter  in 
color  than  most  English  women,  and  had  a  soft  and  downcast 
eye,  and  a  modest  and  sensitive  expression. 

I  have  seen,  I  suppose,  a  hundred  advertisements  of  runaway 
slaves,  who  were  described  as  being  so  white  that  they  might 
be  mistaken  for  white  persons.     I  append  some  specimens  : — 

From  the  Republican  Banner  and  Nashville  Whig,  July  14,  1849. 

"  Two  Hundred  Dollars  Reward. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber, 
on  the  23d  of  June  last,  a  bright  mulatto  woman,  named  Julia,  about 
twenty-five  years  of  age.  She  is  of  common  size,  nearly  white,  and 
very  likely.  She  is  a  good  seamstress,  and  can  read  a  little.  She 
may  attempt  to  pass  for  white;  dresses  fine.  She  took  with  her 
Anna,  her  child,  eight  or  nine  years  old,  and  considerably  darker  than 
her  mother.  *  *  *  She  once  belonged  to  a  Mr.  Helm,  of  Columbia, 
Tennessee. 

"  I  will  give  a  reward,  &c. 

"  A.  W.  Johnson." 

From  the  Savannah  Republican,  Oct.  8,  1855. 

"Fifty  Dollars  Reward. — Ran  away  from  the  subscriber,  on  the 
22d  ulto.,  my  negro  man,  Albert,  who  is  27  years  old,  very  white,  so 
much  so  that  he  would  not  be  suspected  of  being  a  negro.  Has  blue 
eyes,  and  very  light  hair.  Wore,  when  he  left,  a  long  thin  beard,  and 
rode  a  chestnut  sorrel  horse,  with  about  $ 70  belonging  to  himself. 

"  He  is  about  five  feet  eight  inches  high,  and  weighs  about  140 
pounds.  Has  a  very  humble  and  meek  appearance ;  can  neither  read 
nor  write,  and  is  a  very  kind  and  amiable  fellow ;  speaks  much  like  a 
low  country  negro.  He  has,  no  doubt,  been  led  off  by  some  miserable 
wretch,  during  my  absence  in  New  Tork. 

"  The  above  reward  will  be  paid  for  his  delivery  to  me,  or  to  Tiuson 

&  Mackey,  Savannah,  or  for  his  apprehension  and  confinement  in  any 

jail  where  I  can  get  him. 

"I.  M.  Tison. 

"  Bethel,  Glynn  Co.,  Ga." 


LOUISIANA.  641 

From  the  New  Orleans  Picayune. 

"  Two  Hundred  Dollars  Reward. — Ean  away  from  the  subscriber, 
last  November,  a  white  negro  man,  about  thirty-five  years  old,  hight 
about  five  feet  eight  or  ten  inches,  blue  eyes,  has  a  yellow  woolly  head, 
very  fair  skin  (particularly  under  his  clothes).  *  *  *  Said  negro 
man  was  raised  in  Columbia,  S.  C,  and  is  well  known  by  the  name  of 
Dick  Frazier.  *  *  *  jje  was  lately  known  to  be  working  on  the 
rail-road  in  Alabama,  near  Moore's  Turnout,  and  passed  as  a  white  man, 
by  the  name  of  Jesse  Teams.     I  will  give  the  above  reward,  &c. 

"  Barnwell  Court  House,  S.  C.  J.  D.  Allen. 

"  P.  S. — Said  man  has  a  good-shaped  foot  and  leg ;  and  his  foot  is  very 
small  and  hollow." 

Prom  the  Richmond  (Virginia)  Whig. 

"  One  Hundred  Dollars  Reward  will  be  given  for  the  apprehen- 
sion of  my  negro,  Edmund  Kenney.  He  has  straight  hair,  and  complex- 
ion so  nearly  white  that  it  is  believed  a  stranger  would  suppose  there 
was  no  African  blood  in  him.  He  was  with  my  boy  Dick,  a  short  time 
since,  in  Norfolk,  and  offered  him  for  sale,  and  was  apprehended,  but 
escaped  under  pretense  of  being  a  white  man. 

"Anderson  Bowles." 

An  intelligent  man,  whom  I  met  at  Washington,  who  had 
been  traveling  most  of  the  time  for  two  years,  in  the  planting 
districts  of  the  Louisiana,  having  business  with  planters,  told 
me  that  the  free  negroes  of  the  State  in  general,  so  far  as  he  had 
observed,  were  just  equal,  in  all  respects,  to  the  white  Creoles. 
Much  the  largest  part  of  them,  he  said,  are  poor,  thriftless,  unam- 
bitious, and  live  wretchedly  ;  but  there  are  many,  opulent,  intelli- 
gent, "and  educated.  The  best  house  and  most  tasteful  grounds 
that  he  had  visited  in  the  State,  belong  to  a  nearly  full-blooded 
negro — a  very  dark  man.  He  and  his  family  are  well  educated, 
and  though  French  is  their  habitual  tongue,  they  speak  English 
with  freedom ;  and  one  of  them  with  much  more  elegance  than 
most  liberally  educated  whites  in  the  South.     They  had  a  private 


642  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

tutor  in  their  family.      They  owned,  he  presumed,  a  hundred 
slaves. 

Court  was  in  session  at  Opelousas  during  my  visit,  and  among 
the  crowd  of  people  in  attendance,  there  were  a  number  of  well- 
dressed,  and  self-respecting-looking  colored  men ;  but  they  kept 
together,  in  groups  by  themselves,  not  mingling  or  conversing  at 
all  with  the  whites. 

OPELOUSAS  AND  WASHINGTON. 

Opelousas  is  a  pleasant  village,  with  shaded  streets,  and  many 
substantial  mansions,  and  pretty  cottages.  The  soil  in  the 
vicinity  is  very  rich,  and  there  are  many  large  plantations. 

Washington  is  a  mean,  scattering  village,  on  a  narrow  bayou, 
and  is  the  shipping  port  of  Opelousas,  and  of  a  large  planting 
and  grazing  district.  The  inhabitants  seemed  to  be  mostly  Ger- 
mans. In  the  inn  yard  were  five  German  peddlers'  wagons. 
These  peddlers,  I  ascertained,  usually  purchased  their  outfit  of 
their  countrymen  in  Washington,  and  were  present  in  unusual 
numbers  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  to  give  evidence  in  the  court 
sitting  at  Opelousas.  They  testified  that  they  each  had  been  in 
the  habit  of  purchasing  from  one  house,  goods  to  the  value  of 
from  one  to  two  hundred  dollars  a  month.  There  were  also 
several  other  Germans,  travelers  and  clerks,  in  the  village, 
boarding  at  the  hotel. 

GERMAN    FOOLS. 

The  educated  German,  who  has  grafted  upon  the  thorough- 
ness, the  conscientiousness,  and  the  pleasant,  social  traits  of  his 
countrymen,  the  rapidity,  directness,  and  self-reliance  of  the 
American,  is  the  most  agreeable,  and  if  not  yet  the  most  useful, 


LOUISIANA.  643 

certainly  the  most  promising  man  in  our  country.  But  I  don't 
know  any  people  so  disagreeable,  or  so  despicable  as  those  young 
Germans,  who  have  learned  to  copy  all  that  is  vulgar  and  vicious 
in  the  American  character,  and  who  are  ashamed  of  their  own 
natural  characteristics.  They  speak,  even  to  each  other,  all  the 
while,  a  bastard  English  ;  and  their  chief  accomplishment  is  to 
decorate  it  with  a  profusion  of  cant,  and  profane  and  obscene 
phrases  and  words.  These  at  Washington  carried  k^nives  in 
their  bosoms,  and  were  constantly  offering  familiar  observations 
to  me,  and  the  other  New-Yorker  at  the  hotel,  nearly  always 
commencing  with  the  exclamation,  "  Oh  !  Christ !  gents."  One 
of  them  told  me,  aside,  with  great  contempt,  that  the  rest  were 
Jews,  but  that  they  pretended  to  be  infidels. 

The  house  was  well  filled  with  guests,  and  my  friend  and  my- 
self were  told  that  we  must  sleep  together.  In  the  room  con- 
taining our  bed,  there  were  three  other  beds ;  and  although  the 
outside  of  the  house  was  pierced  with  windows,  nowhere  more 
than  four  feet  apart,  not  one  of  them  opened  out  of  our  room. 
A  door  opened  into  the  hall,  another  into  the  dining-room,  and 
at  the  side  of  our  bed  was  a  window  into  the  dining-room, 
through  whicb,  betimes  in  the  morning,  we  could,  with  our  heads 
on  our  pillows,  see  the  girls  setting  the  breakfast-tables.  Both 
the  doors  were  provided  with  glass  windows,  without  curtains. 
Hither,  about  eleven  o'clock,  we  retired.  Soon  afterwards,  hear- 
ing something  moving  under  the  bed,  I  asked,  "  Who's  there"?' 
and  was  answered  by  a  girl,  who  was  burrowing  for  eggs  ;  part  of 
the  stores  of  the  establishment  being  kept  in  boxes,  in  this  con- 
venient locality.  Later,  I  was  awakened  by  a  stranger  attempt- 
ing to  enter  my  bed.  I  expostulated,  and  he  replied  that  it  was 
his  bed,  and  nobody  else  had  a  right  to  his  place  in  it.     Who 


644  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

was  I,  lie  asked,  angrily,  and  where  was  his  partner.  "Here  I 
am,"  answered  a  voice  from  another  bed ;  and  without  another 
word,  he  left  us.  I  slept  but  little,  and  woke  feverish,  and  with 
a  headache,  caused  by  the  want  of  ventilation. 

FIGHTS. 

While  at  the  dinner-table,  a  man  asked,  as  one  might  at  the 
North,  if  the  steamer  had  arrived,  if  there  had  been  "  any  fights 
to-day  ?"  After  dinner,  while  we  were  sitting  on  the  gallery, 
loud  cursing,  and  threatening  voices  were  heard  in  the  direction 
of  the  bar-room,  which,  as  at  Machitoches,  was  detached,  and  at 
a  little  distance  from  the  hotel.  The  company,  except  myself 
and  the  other  New-Yorker,  immediately  ran  towards  it.  After 
ten  minutes,  one  returned,  and  said  : 

"  I  don't  believe  there'll  be  any  fight ;  they  are  both  cowards." 

"  Are  they  preparing  for  a  fight?" 

"  0,  yes  ;  they  are  loading  pistols  in  the  coffee-room,  and 
there's  a  man  outside,  in  the  street,  who  has  a  revolver  and  a 
knife,  and  who  is  challenging  another  to  come  out.  He  swears 
he'll  wait  there  till  he  does  come  out ;  but  in  my  opinion  he'll 
think  better  of  it,  when  he  finds  that  the  other  feller's  got 
pistols,  too." 

"  What's  the  occasion  of  the  quarrel  ?" 

"  Why,  the  man  in  the  street  says  the  other  one  insulted  him 
this  morning,  and  that  he  had  his  hand  on  his  knife,  at  the  very 
moment  he  did  so,  so  he  couldn't  reply.  And  now  he  says  he's 
ready  to  talk  with  him,  and  he  Avants  to  have  him  come  out,  and 
as  many  of  his  friends  as  are  a  mind  to  may  come  with  him  ; 
he's  got  enough  for  all  of  'em,  he  says.  He's  got  two  revolvers, 
I  believe." 


LOUISIANA.  645 

We  did  not  hear  how  it  it  ended ;  but,  about  an  hour  after- 
wards, I  saw  three  men,  with  pistols  in  their  hands,  coming  from 
the  bar-room. 

The  next  day,  I  saw,  in  the  streets  of  the  same  town,  two 
boys  running  from  another,  who  was  pursuing  them  with  a 
large,  open  dirk-knife  in  his  hand,  and  every  appearance  of  un- 
governable rage  in  his  face. 

The  boat,  for  which  I  was  waiting,  not  arriving,  I  asked  the 
landlady — who  appeared  to  be  a  German  Jewess — if  I  could  not 
have  a  better  sleeping-room.  She  showed  me  one,  which  she 
said  I  might  use  for  a  single  night ;  but,  if  I  remained  another, 
I  must  not  refuse  to  give  it  up.  It  had  been  occupied  by  an- 
other gentleman,  and  she  thought  he  might  return  the  next  day, 
and  would  want  it  again ;  and,  if  I  remained  in  it,  he  would  be 
very  angry  that  they  had  not  reserved  it  for  him,  although  they 
were  under  no  obligation  to.  "  He  is  a  dangerous  man,"  she 
observed,  "  and  my  husband,  he's  a  quick-tempered  man,  and, 
if  they  get  to  quarreling  about  it,  there'll  be  knives  about, 
sure.     It  always  frightens  me  to  see  knives  drawn." 

A    TEXAS    DROVER'S    RELIGION. 

A  Texas  drover,  who  staid  over  night  at  the  hotel,  being 
asked,  as  he  was  about  to  leave  in  the  morning,  if  he  was  not 
going  to  have  his  horse  shod,  replied: 

"  No  sir !  it'll  be  a  damned  long  spell  'fore  I  pay  for  having  a 
horse  shod.  I  reckon  if  God  Almighty  had  thought  it  right 
hosses  should  have  iron  on  thar  feet,  he'd  a  put  it  thar  himself. 
I  don't  pretend  to  be  a  pious  man  myself ;  but  I  a'nt  a-goin'  to 
run  agin  the  will  of  God  Almighty,  though  thar's  some,  that 
calls  themselves  ministers  of  Christ,  that  does  it." 


646  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

CREOLE    BALL. 

I  attended  a  Creole  ball,  while  at  Washington.  The  ladies 
were,  on  an  average,  more  beautiful,  better '  formed,  and  more 
becomingly  dressed,  as  well  as  much  better  dancers,  than  they 
would  ever  be  found  in  a  country  ball  room  at  the  North ;  but, 
what  was  chiefly  remarkable,  was  the  exquisite  skill  and  taste 
displayed  in  the  dressing  of  their  hair.  The  ball  was  conducted 
Avith  the  greatest  propriety ;  and  broke  up  earlier  than  public 
balls  usually  do  at  the  North. 

COURT  AT   OPELOUSAS. 

Nearly  all  of  the  large  number  of  people,  in  attendance  on 
the  Court,  who  came  in  from  the  country,  rode  on  horseback. 
The  majority  of  them  were  of  French  blood;  but  the  leading  and 
richest  men  seemed  to  be  all  English.  Pleadings  were  made  by 
each  counsel — first  in  the  English,  and  afterwards  in  the  French 
language.  A  juryman  mentioned,  at  dinner,  that  the  man  who 
sat  beside  him,  on  the  jury,  Avas  a  Spaniard,  and  understood 
very  little  French,  and  scarcely  a  word  of  English;  and  was 
constantly  asking  him  what  it  was  that  was  being  said.  There 
were  also  a  good  many  Germans,  and,  as  I  before  mentioned, 
several  free  colored  persons :  I  saw  not  one  Irishman.  The 
Court-room  was  strewed,  to  the  depth  of  an  inch  or  two,  with 
saw-dust,  to  absorb  the  tobacco  juice ;  and  the  spitting  was 
incessant,  by  men  of  every  race. 

TRANSACTIONS    IN    THE    NIGGER   TRADE. 

On  the  gallery  of  the  hotel,  after  dinner,  a  fine-looking  man 
■—who  was  on  the  best  of  terms  with  every  one — familiar  with 


LOUISIANA.  647 

the  judge — and  who  had  been  particularly  polite  to  me,  at  the 
dinner-table,  said  to  another  : 

"  I  hear  you  were  very  unlucky  with  that  girl  you  bought  of 
me,  last  year?" 

"  Yes,  I  was ;  very  unlucky.  She  died  with  her  first  child, 
and  the  child  died,  too." 

"  Well,  that  was  right  hard  for  you.  She  was  a  fine  girl.  I 
don't  reckon  you  lost  less  than  five  thousand  dollars,  when  she 
died." 

"No,  sir;  not  a  dollar  less." 

"  Well,  it  came  right  hard  upon  you — -just  beginning  so." 

"Yes,  I  was  foolish,  I  suppose,  to  risk  so  much  on  the  life  of  a 
single  woman ;  but  I've  got  a  good  start  again  now,  for  all  that. 
I've  got  two  right  likely  girls  ;  one  of  them's  got  a  fine  boy, 
four  months  old,  and  the  other's  with  child — and  old  Pine 
Knot's  as  hearty  as  ever." 

"  Is  he  ?     Hasn't  been  sick  at  all,  eh?" 

"  Yes ;  he  was  sick  very  soon  after  I  bought  him  of  you  ;  but 
he  got  well  soon." 

"  That's  right.  I'd  rather  a  nigger  would  be  sick  early,  after 
he  comes  into  this  country ;  for  he's  bound  to  be  acclimated, 
sooner  or  later,  and  the  longer  it's  put  off,  the  harder  it  goes 
with  him." 

The  man  was  a  regular  negro  trader.  He  told  me  that  he 
had  a  partner  in  Kentucky,  and  that  they  owned  a  farm  there, 
and  another  one  here.  His  partner  bought  negroes,  as  oppor- 
tunity offered  to  get  them  advantageously,  and  kept  them  on 
their  Kentucky  farm ;  and  he  went  on  occasionally,  and  brought 
the  surplus  to  their  Louisiana  plantation — where  he  held  them 
for  sale. 


648 


OUR     SLAVE     STATES 


"  So-and-so  is  very  hard  upon  you,"  said  another  man, 
to  him  as  he  still  sat,  smoking  his  cigar,  on  the  gallery,  after 
dinner. 

"  Why  so  1  He's  no  business  to  complain  ;  I  told  him  just  ex- 
actly what  the  nigger  was,  before  I  sold  him  (laughing,  as  if  there 
was  a  concealed  joke).  It  was  all  right — all  right.  I  heard  that 
he  sold  him  again  for  a  thousand  dollars ;  and  the  people  that 
bought  him,  gave  him  two  hundred  dollars  to  let  them  off  from 
the  bargain.  I'm  sure  he  can't  complain  of  me.  It  was  a  fair 
transaction.     He  knew  just  what  he  was  buying." 

FRENCH    AND    SPANISH    BLOODED    LOUISIANIANS. 

Of  the  Creoles,  in  general,  the  commercial  traveler  said,  that 
the  greater  part  live  very  poorly.  He  had  sometimes  found  it 
difficult  to  get  food,  even  when  he  was  in  urgent  need  of  it,  at 
their  houses.  The  lowest  class  live  much  from  hand  to  mouth ; 
and  are  often  in  extreme  destitution.  This  was  more  particularly 
the  case  with  those  who  lived  on  the  rivers ;  those  who  resided 
on  the  prairies  were  seldom  so  much  reduced.  The  former  now 
live  only  on  those  parts  of  the  river  to  which  the  back-swamp 
approaches  nearest ;  that  is,  where  there  is  but  little  valuable 
land,  that  can  be  appropriated  for  plantation-purposes.  They 
almost  all  reside  in  communities,  very  closely  housed  in  poor 
cabins.  If  there  is  any  considerable  number  of  them,  there  is 
to  be  always  found,  among  the  cluster  of  their  cabins,  a  church, 
and  a  billiard  and  a  gambling-room — and  the  latter  is  always 
occupied,  and  play  going  on. 

They  almost  all  appear  excessively  apathetic,  sleepy,  and 
stupid,  if  you  see  them  at  home ;  and  they  are  always  longing 
and  waiting  for  some  excitement.     They  live  for  excitement,  and 


LOUISIANA.  649 

will  not  labor,  unless  it  is  violently-,  for  a  short  time,  to  gratify 
some  passion. 

This  was  as  much  the  case  with  the  women  as  the  men.  The 
women  were  often  handsome,  stately,  and  graceful,  and,  ordi- 
narily, exceedingly  kind ;  but  languid,  and  incredibly  indolent, 
unless  there  was  a  ball,  or  some  other  excitement,  to  engage 
them.  Under  excitement,  they  were  splendidly  animated,  im- 
petuous, and  eccentric.  One  moment  they  seemed  possessed  by 
a  devil,  and  the  next  by  an  angel. 

The  Creoles  are  inveterate  gamblers — rich  and  poor  alike. 
The  majority  of  wealthy  Creoles,  he  said,  do  nothing  to  improve 
their  estate ;  and  are  very  apt  to  live  beyond  their  income. 
They  borrow  and  play,  and  keep  borrowing  to  play,  as  long  as 
they  can ;  but  they  will  not  part  with  their  land,  and  especially 
with  their  home,  as  long  as  they  can  help  it,  by  any  sacrifice. 

The  men  are  generally  dissolute.  They  have  large  families, 
and  a  great  deal  of  family  affection.  He  did  not  know  that  they 
had  more  than  Anglo-Saxons ;  but  they  certainly  manifested  a 
great  deal  more,  and,  he  thought,  had  more  domestic  happiness. 
If  a  Creole  farmer's  child  marries,  he  will  build  a  house  for  the 
new  couple,  adjoining  his  own;  and,  when  another  marries,  he 
builds  another  house — so,  often  his  whole  front  on  the  river  is 
at  length  occupied.  Then  he  begins  to  build  others,  back  of 
the  first — and  so,  there  gradually  forms  a  little  village,  wherever 
there  is  a  large  Creole  family,  owning  any  considerable  piece  of 
land.  The  children  are  poorly  educated,  and  are  not  brought 
up  to  industry,  at  all. 

The  planters  living  near  them,  as  their  needs  increase,  lend 

them  money,  and  get  mortgages  on  their  land,  or,  in  some  way 

or  other,  if  it  is  of  any  value,  force  them  to  part  with  it.     Thus 
28 


650  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

they  are  every  year  reduced,  more  and  more,  to  the  poorest 
lands ;  and  the  majority  now  are  able  to  get  but  a  very  poor 
living,  and  would  not  be  able  to  live  at  all,  in  a  Northern 
climate.  They  are,  nevertheless — even  the  poorest  of  them — 
habitually  gay  and  careless,  as  well  as  kind-hearted,  hospitable, 
and  dissolute — working  little,  and  spending  much  of  their  time 
at  church,  or  at  balls,  or  at  the  gaming-table. 

There  are  very  many  wealthy  Creole  planters,  who  are  as 
cultivated  and  intelligent  as  the  better  class  of  American 
planters,  and  usually  more  refined.  The  Creoles,  he  said,  did 
not  work  their  slaves  as  hard  as  the  Americans ;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  they  did  not  feed  or  clothe  them  nearly  as  well,  and 
he  had  noticed  universally,  on  the  Creole  plantations,  a  large 
number  of  "  used-up  hands" — slaves,  sore  and  crippled,  or 
invalided  for  some  cause.  On  all  sugar  plantations,  he  said, 
they  work  the  negroes  excessively,  in  the  grinding  season ;  often 
cruelly.  Under  the  usual  system,  to  keep  the  fires  burning,  and 
the  works  constantly  supplied,  eighteen  hours'  work  was  required 
of  every  negro,  in  twenty-four — leaving  but  six  for  rest.  The 
work  of  most  of  them,  too,  was  very  hard.  They  were  gene- 
rally, during  the  grinding  season,  liberally  supplied  with  food 
and  coffee,  and  were  induced,  as  much  as  possible,  to  make  a 
kind  of  frolic  of  it ;  yet,  on  the  Creole  plantations,  he  thought 
they  did  not,  even  in  the  grinding  season,  often  get  meat. 

I  remarked  that  the  law,  in  Louisiana,  required  that  meat 
should  be  regularly  served  to  the  negroes. 

"  0,  those  laws  are  very  little  regarded." 

"  Indeed  ?" 

"  Certainly.  Suppose  you  are  my  neighbor ;  if  you  maltreat 
your  negroes,  and  tell  me  of  it,  or  I  see  it,  am  I  going  to  prefer 


LOUISIANA.  651 

charges  against  you  to  the  magistrates  3  I  might  possibly  get 
you  punished,  according  to  law ;  but,  if  I  did,  or  did  not,  I 
should  have  you,  and  your  family  and  friends,  far  and  near, 
for  my  mortal  enemies.  There  is  a  law  of  the  State  that  negroes 
shall  not  be  worked  on  Sundays ;  but  I  have  seen  negroes  at 
work  almost  every  Sunday,  when  I  have  been  in  the  country, 
since  I  have  lived  in  Louisiana."*  I  spent  a  Sunday  once  with  a 
gentleman,  who  did  not  work  his  hands  at  all  on  Sunday,  even 
in  the  grinding  season ;  and  he  had  got  some  of  his  neighbors 
to  help  him  build  a  school-house — which  was  used  as  a  church, 
on  Sunday.  He  said,  there  was  not  a  plantation  on  either  side 
of  him,  as  far  as  he  could  see,  where  the  slaves  were  not  gene- 
rally worked  on  Sunday  ;  but  that,  after  the  church  was  started, 
several  of  them  quit  the  practice,  and  made  their  negroes  go  to 
the  meeting.  This  made  others  discontented ;  and,  after  a  year 
or  two,  the  planters  voted  new  trustees  to  the  school,  and  these 
forbid  the  house  to  be  used  for  any  other  than  school  purposes. 
This  was  done,  he  had  no  doubt,  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  up 
the  meetings,  and  to  lessen  the  discontent  of  the  slaves  which 
were  worked  on  Sunday." 

It  was  said  that  the  custom  of  working  the  negroes-  on  Sun- 
day was  much  less  common  than  formerly ;  if  so,  he  thought 
that  it  must  have  formerly  been  universal. 

He  had  lived,  when  a  boy,  for  several  years  on  a  farm  in  West- 
ern New  York,  and  afterwards,  for  some  time,  at  Eochester,  and 
was  well  acquainted  with  the  people  generally,  in  the  valley  of 
the  Genesee. 

*  I  also  saw  slaves  at  work  every  Sunday  that  I  was  in  Louisiana.  The  law 
permits  slaves  to  he  worked,  I  helieve,  on  Sunday  ;  but  requires  that  some 
compensation  shall  be  made  to  them  when  they  are — such  as  a  subsequent 
holiday. 


652  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

I  asked  him  if  he  thought,  among  the  intelligent  class  of  farm- 
ers and  planters,  people  of  equal  property  lived  more  happily 
in  New  York  or  Louisiana.  He  replied  immediately,  as  if  he 
had  carefully  considered  the  topic,  that,  with  some  rare  exceptions, 
farmers  worth  forty  thousand  dollars  lived  in  far  greater  comfort, 
and  enjoyed  more  refined  and  elegant  leisure,  than  planters  worth 
three  hundred  thousand,  and  that  farmers  of  the  ordinary  class, 
who  labored  with  their  own  hands,  and  were  worth  some  six 
thousand  dollars,  in  the  Genesee  valley,  lived  in  far  greater  com- 
fort, and  in  all  respects  more  enviably,  than  planters  worth  forty 
thousand  dollars  in  Louisiana.  The  contrast  was  especially 
favorable  to  the  New  York  farmer,  in  respect  to  books  and  news- 
papers. He  might  travel  several  days,  and  call  on  a  hundred 
planters,  and  hardly  see  in  their  houses  more  than  a  single  news- 
paper a-piece,  in  most  cases ;  perhaps  none  at  all :  nor  any  books 
except  a  Bible,  and  some  Government  publications,  that  had  been 
franked  to  them  through  the  post-office,  and  perhaps  a  few  religi- 
ous tracts  or  school-books. 

The  most  striking  difference  that  he  observed  between  the 
Anglo-Americans  of  Louisiana  and  New  York,  was  the  impul- 
sive and  unreflective  habit  of  the  former,  in  doing  business.  He 
mentioned,  as  illustrative  of  this,  the  almost  universal  passion 
among  the  planters  for  increasing  their  negro-stock.  It  appeared 
evident  to  him,  that  the  market  price  of  negroes  was  much  high- 
er than  the  prices  of  cotton  and  sugar  warranted ;  but  it  seemed 
as  if  no  planter  ever  made  any  calculation  of  that  kind.  The 
majority  of  planters,  he  thought,  would  always  run  in  debt  to  the 
extent  of  their  credit  for  negroes,  whatever  was  asked  for  them, 
without  making  any  calcalation  of  the  reasonable  prospects 
of  their  been  able  to  pay  their  debts.     When  any  one  made  a 


LOUISIANA.  653 

good  crop,  he  would  always  expect  that  his  next  one  would  be 
better,  and  make  purchases  in  advance  upon  such  expectation. 
When  they  were  dunned,  they  would  attribute  their  inability  to 
pay,  to  accidental  short  crops,  and  always  were  going  ahead 
risking  everything,  in  confidence  that  another  year  luck  would 
favor^  them,  and  a  big  crop  make  all  right. 

If  they  had  a  full  crop,  probably  there  would  be  good  crops 
everywhere  else,  and  prices  would  fall,  and  then  they  would  whine 
and  complain,  as  if  the  merchants  were^to  blame  for  it,  and 
would  insinuate  that  no  one  could  be  expected  to  pay  his  debts 
when  prices  were  so  low,  and  that  it  would  be  dangerous  to  press 
such  an  unjust  claim.  And,  if  the  crops  met  with  any  misfortune, 
from  floods,  or  rot,  or  vermin,  they  would  cry  about  it  like  child- 
ren when  rain  fell  upon  a  holiday,  as  if  they  had  never  thought 
of  the  possibility  of  such  a  thing,  and  were  very  hard  used. 

The  following  resolutions  were  proposed  (and  perhaps  passed) 
in  the  Southern  Commercial  Convention,  at  New  Orleans,  this 
year  (1855). 

"  Resolved,  That  this  Convention  strongly  recommends  the  Chambers 
of  Commerce  and  Commission  Merchants  of  our  Southern  and  South- 
western cities  to  adopt  such  a  system  of  laws  and  regulations  as  will 
put  a  stop  to  the  dangerous  practice,  heretofore  existing,  of  making  ad- 
vances to  planters,  in  anticipation  of  their  crops — a  practice  entirely  at 
variance  with  everything  like  safety  in  business-transactions,  and  tend- 
ing directly  to  establish  the  relations  of  master  and  slave  between  the  mer- 
chant and  planter,  by  bringing  the  latter  into  the  most  abject  and  servile 
bondage. 

"  Resolved,  That  this  Convention  recommend,  in  the  most  urgent 
manner,  that  the  planters  of  the  Southern  and  Southwestern  States 
patronize  exclusively  our  home  merchants,  and  that  our  Chambers  of 
Commerce,  and  merchants  generally,  exert  all  their  influence  to  exclude 
foreign  agents  from  the  purchase  and  sale  of  produce  in  any  of  pv 
Southern  and  Southwestern  cities. 


65-1  OUS     SLATE     STATES. 

"  Resolved,  further.  That  this  Convention  recommend  to  the  Legisla- 
tor's of  the  Southern  and  South-TVestern  States  to  pass  laws,  malring  it 
a  penitentiary  offense  for  the  planters  to  ask  of  the  merchants  to  make 
euch  pecuniary  advances." 

He  had  talked  with  many  sugar-planters  "who  were  verv  strong 
Cuba  war  and  annexation  men,  and  had  rarely  found  that  any  of 
these  had  given  the  first  thought  to  the  probable  effect*  the 
annexation  of  Cuba  would  have  on  their  home  interests.  It  was 
mainly  a  romantic  excitement  and  enthusiasm,  inflamed  by  sense- 
less appeals  to  their  patriotism  and  their  combativeness.  They 
had  got  the  idea,  that  patriotism  was  necessarily  associated  with 
hatred  and  contempt  of  any  other  country  but  their  own,  and  the 
only  foreigners  to  be  regarded  with  favor  were  those  who  desired 
to  surrender  themselves  to  us. 

They  never  reflected  that  the  annexation  of  Cuba  would  neces- 
sarily be  attended  by  the  removal  of  the  duty  on  sugar,  and 
would  bring  them  into  competition  with  the  sugar-planters  of 
that  island,  where  the  advantages  for  growing  cane  were  so  much 
greater  than  in  Louisiana. 

To  some  of  the  very  wealthy  planters  who  favored  the  move- 
ment, and  who  were  understood  to  have  taken  some  of  the  Junta 
stock,  he  gave  credit  for  greater  sagacity.  He  thought  it  was 
the  purpose  of  these  mea,  if  Cuba  eould  be  annexed,  to  get  pos- 
session of  large  estates  there :  then,  with  the  advantages  of  their 
greater  skill  in  sugar-making,  and  better  machinery  than  that 
which  yet  was  in  use  in  Cuba,  and  with  much  cheaper  land  and 
labor,  and  a  far  better  climate  for  cane  growing  than  that  of 
Louisiana,  it  would  be  easy  for  them  to  accumulate  large  fortunes 
in  a  few  years ;  but  he  thought  the  sugar-planters  who  remained 
in  Louisiana  would  be  ruined  by  it. 

The  principal  subscribers  to  the  Junta  stock  at  the  South,  he 


LOUISIANA.  655 

thought,  were  land  speculators  ;  persons  who  expected  that,  by 
now  favoring  the  movement,  they  would  be  able  to  obtain  from 
the  revolutionary  government  large  grants  of  land  in  the  island, 
as  gratuities  in  reward  of  their  services  or  at  nominal  prices, 
which  after  annexation  would  rise  very  rapidly  in  value ;  or  per- 
sons who  now  owned  wild  land  in  the  States,  and  who  thought 
that  if  Cuba  were  annexed  the  African  slave-trade  would  be  re- 
established, either  openly  or  clandestinely,  with  the  States,  and 
their  lands  be  increased  in  value,  by  the  greater  cheapness  with 
which  they  could  then  be  stocked  with  laborers. 

I  find  these  views  confirmed  in  a  published  letter  from  a  Loui- 
siana planter,  to  one  of  the  members  of  Congress,  from  that 
State ;  and  I  insert  an  extract  of  that  letter,  as  it  is  evidently 
from  a  sensible  and  far-thinking  man,  to  show  on  how  insecure  a 
basis  rests  the  prosperity  of  the  slave-holding  interest  in  Louisi- 
ana. The  fact  would  seem  to  be,  that,  if  it  were  not  for  the 
tariff  on  foreign  sugars,  sugar  could  not  be  produced  at  all  by 
slave  labor ;  and  that  a  discontinuance  of  sugar  culture  would 
almost  desolate  the  State. 

"  The  question  now  naturally  comes  up  to  you  and  to  me,  do  we 
Louisianians  desire  the  possession  of  Cuba  ?  It  is  not  what  the  pro- 
vision dealers  of  the  West,  or  the  ship-owners  of  the  North  may  wish  for, 
but  what  the  State  of  Louisiania,  as  a  State,  may  deem  consistent  with 
her  best  interests.  My  own  opinion  on  the  subject  is  not  a  new  one. 
It  was  long  ago  expressed  to  high  officers  of  our  Government,  neither 
of  whom  ever  hesitated  to  acknowledge  that  it  was,  in  the  main,  correct. 
That  opinion  was  and  is,  that  the  acquisition  of  Cuba  would  prove  the 
ruin  of  our  State.  I  found  this  opinion  on  the  following  reasons  :  Cuba 
has  already  land  enough  in  cultivation  to  produce,  when  directed  by 
American  skill,  energy,  and  capital,  twenty  millions  of  tons  of  sugar. 
In  addition  to  this  she  has  virgin  soil,  only  needing  roads  to  bring  it, 
with  a  people  of  the  least  pretension  to  enterprise,  into  active  work- 
ing, sufficient  nearly  to  double  this  ;  all  of  which  would  be  soon  brought 


656  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

into  productiveness  were  it  our  own,  with  the  whole  American  market 
free  to  it.  If  any  man  supposes  that  the  culture  of  sugar  in  our  State 
can  be  sustained  in  the  face  of  this,  I  have  only  to  say  that  he  can  sup- 
pose anything.  We  have  very  nearly,  if  not  quite,  eighty  millions  in- 
vested in  the  sugar  culture  My  idea  is  that  three-fourths  of  this  would, 
so  far  as  the  State  is  concerned,  be  annihilated  at  a  blow.  The  planter 
who  is  in  debt,  would  find  his  negroes  and  machinery  sold  and  dis- 
patched to  Cuba  for  him,  and  he  who  is  independent  would  go  there  in 
self-defense.  "What  will  become  of  the  other  portion  of  the  capital  ?  It 
consists  of  land,  on  which  I  maintain  there  can  be  produced  no  other 
crop  but  sugar,  under  present  auspices,  that  will  bear  the  contest  with 
cocoa,*  and  the  expense  and  risk  of  levees,  as  it  regards  the  larger  part 
of  it,  and  the  difficulty  of  transportation  for  the  remainder.  But  sup- 
posing that  it  will  be  taken  up  by  some  other  cultivation,  that  in  any 
case  must  be  a  work  of  time,  and  in  this  case  a  very  long  time  for  unac- 
climated  men.  It  is  not  unreasonable,  then,  to  suppose  that  this  whole 
capital  will,  for  purposes  of  taxation,  be  withdrawn  from  Louisiana. 
From  whence,  then,  is  to  come  the  revenue  for  the  support  of  our  State 
Government,  for  the  payment  of  the  interest  on  our  debt,  and  the  event- 
ual redemption  of  the  principal  ?  Perhaps  repudiation  may  be  recom- 
mended ;  but  you  and  I,  my  dear  sir,  are  too  old-fashioned  to  rob  in  that 
manner,  or  in  any  other.  The  only  resort,  then,  is  double  taxation  on 
the  cotton  planter,  which  will  drive  him,  without  much  difficulty,  to 
Texas,  to  Arkansas,  and  Mississippi." 


VISIT    TO    A    SUGAK    PLANTATION. 

I  came  to  Mr.  K.'s  plantation  by  a  steam-boat,  late  at  night. 
As  the  boat  approached  the  shore,  near  his  house,  her  big  bell 
having  been  rung  some  ten  minutes  previously,  a  negro  came 
out  with  a  lantern  to  meet  her.  The  boat's  bow  was  run  boldly 
against  the  bank ;  I  leaped  ashore,  the  clerk  threw  out  a  news- 
paper and  a  package,  saying  to   the  negro,    "  That's  for  your 

*  Cocoa  is  a  grass  much  more  pernicious,  and  more  difficult  of  extirpation 
when  it  once  gets  a  footing  upon  a  sugar  plantation,  than  the  Canada  thistle,  or 
any  other  weed  known  at  the  North.  Several  plantations  have  heen  ruined  by 
it,  and  given  up  as  worthless  by  then-  owners. 


LOUISIANA.  657 

master,  and  that's  for  so  and  so,  tell  your  master,  and  ask  him 
to  give  it  to  him."  The  hoat  bounded  off  by  her  own  elasticity, 
the  starboard  wheel  was  backed  for  a  turn  or  two,  and  the  next 
minute  the  great  edifice  was  driving  up  the  stream  again — nol 
a  rope  having  been  lifted,  nor  any  other  movement  having  bees 
made  on  board,  except  by  the  pilot  and  engineer. 

"  Do  you  belong  to  Mr.  E.  1"  I  asked  the  negro.  "  Yes,  sir,- 
is  you  going  to  our  house,  master?"  "  Yes."  "I'll  show  you 
the  way,  then,  sir ;"  and  he  conducted  me  in,  leaving  the  parcels 
the  clerk  had  thrown  out,  where  they  had  fallen,  on  the  bank. 

A  negro  woman  prepared  a  bed  for  me,  waited  at  the  door  till 
I  had  put  out  my  light,  and  then  returned  to  tuck  in  the  musquito- 
bar  tightly  about  the  bed.  This  was  merely  from  custom,  as 
there  were  no  musquitoes  at  that  season.  In  the  morning  the 
same  woman  awakened  me,  opened  the  curtains,  and  asked  me 
to  take  the  money  which  she  had  found  in  the  pockets  of  my 
clothing,  while  she  took  it  out  to  be  brushed. 

Mr.  E.  is  a  Southerner  by  birth,  but  was  educated  at  the 
North,  where,  also,  and  in  foreign  countries,  he  has  spent  a 
large  part  of  his  life.  He  is  a  man  of  more  than  usual  precision 
of  mind,  energetic  and  humane ;  and  while  his  negroes  seemed 
to  be  better  disciplined  than  any  others  I  had  seen,  they  evi- 
dently regarded  him  with  affection,  respect,  and  pride. 

He  had  been  ill  for  some  weeks  previous  to  my  visit,  and 
when  he  walked  out  with  me,  on  the  second  day,  it  was  the  first 
time  since  the  commencement  of  his  illness  that  his  field-hands 
had  seen  him. 

The  first  negroes  we  met  were  half  a  dozen  women,  who  were 

going  up  to  the  nursery  to  suckle  their  children — the  overseer's 

bell  having  been  just  rung  (at  eleven  o'clock),  to  call  them  in 
28* 


658  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

from  work  for  that  purpose..  Mr.  E.  said  that  he  allowed  them 
two  hours  to  he  with  their  children  while  nursing  at  noon,  and 
to  leave  work  an  hour  earlier  at  night  than  the  other  field-hands. 
The  women  all  stopped  as  we  met  them,  and  asked,  with  much 
animation : 

"  Oh,  master !  how  is  ou  ?" 

"  Well,  I'm  getting  up.     How  are  you,  girls  ?" 

"  Oh,  we's  well,  sir." 

"The  children  all  well ?" 

"  Yes,  master,  all  hut  Sukey's,  sir." 

"  Sukey's  ?     What,  isn't  that  well  yet  ?" 

"No,  master." 

"But  it's  getting  well,  is  it  not?" 

"  Yes,  master." 

Soon  after  we  met  a  hoy,  driving  a  cart.  He  pulled  up  as  he 
came  against  us,  and,  taking  off  his  hat,  asked,  "  How  is  'ou, 
master?" 

"  I'm  getting  well,  you  see.  If  I  don't  get  about,  and  look 
after  you,  I'm  afraid  we  shan't  have  much  of  a  crop.  I  don't 
know  what  you  niggers  will  do  for  Christmas  money." 

"Ha! — look  heah,  massa! — you  jus'  go  right  straight  on  de 
ways  you's  goin' ;  see  suthin'  make  you  laugh,  ha !  ha !  (mean- 
ing the  work  that  had  been  done  while  he  was  ill,  and  the  good 
promise  of  a  crop). 

The  plantation  contained  about  nine  hundred  acres  of  tillage 
land,  and  a  large  tract  of  "swamp,"  or  woodland,  was  attached 
to  it.  The  tillage  land  was  inclosed  all  in  one  field  by  a  strong 
cypress  post  and  rail  fence,  and  was  drained  by  two  canals,  five 
feet  deep,  running  about  twenty  feet  apart,  and  parallel — the 
earth  from  both  being  thrown  together,  so  as  to  make  a  high, 


LOUISIANA.  659 

dry  road  between  them,  straight  through  the  middle  of  the 
plantation. 

Fronting  upon  the  river,  and  but  six  or  eight  rods  from  the 
public  road,  which  everywhere  runs  close  along  the  shore  inside 
the  levee,  was  the  mansion  of  the  proprietor :  an  old  Creole 
house,  the  lower  story  of  brick  and  the  second  of  wood,  with  a 
broad  gallery,  shaded  by  the  extended  roof,  running  all  around  it ; 
the  roof  steep,  and  shedding  water  on  four  sides,  with  orna- 
ments of  turned  wood  where  lines  met,  and  broken  by  several 
small  dormer  windows.  The  gallery  was  supported  by  round 
brick  columns,  and  arches.  The  parlors,  library  and  sleeping 
rooms  of  the  white  family  were  all  on  the  second  floor.  Between 
the  house  and  the  street  was  a  yard,  planted  formally  with 
orange-trees  and  other  evergreens.  A  little  on  one  side  of  the 
house  stood  a  large  two-story,  square  dove-cot,  which  is  a  univer- 
sal appendage  of  a  sugar-planter's  house.  In  the  rear  of  the 
house  was  another  large  yard,  in  which,  irregularly  placed,  were 
houses  for  the  family  servants,  a  kitchen,  stable,  carriage-house, 
smoke-house,  etc.  Behind  this  rear-yard  there  was  a  vegetable 
garden,  of  an  acre  or  more,  in  the  charge  of  a  negro  gardener ; 
a  line  of  fig-trees  were  planted  along  the  fence,  but  all  the  ground 
inclosed  was  intended  to  be  cropped  with  vegetables  for  the  fami- 
ly, and  for  the  supply  of  "  the  people."  I  was  pleased  to  notice, 
however,  that  the  negro-gardener  had,  of  his  own  accord,  plant- 
ed some  violets  and  other  flowering  plants.  From  a  corner  of 
the  court  a  road  ran  to  the  sugar-works  and  the  negro  settle- 
ment, which  were  five  or  six  hundred  yards  from  the  house. 

The  negro  houses  were  exactly  like  those  I  described  on  the 
Georgia  Bice  Blantation,  except  that  they  were  provided  with 
broad   galleries   in   front.     They  were   as   neat   and  well-made 


660  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

externall}7  as  the  cottages  usually  provided  by  large  manufactur- 
ing companies  in  New-England,  to  be  rented  to  their  workmen. 
The  clothing  furnished  the  negroes,  and  the  rations  of  bacon  and 
meal,  were  the  same  as  on  other  good  plantations.  During  the 
grinding  season  extra  rations  of  flour  were  served,  and  hot  coffee 
was  kept  constantly  in  the  sugar-house,  and  the  hands  on  duty 
were  allowed  to  drink  it  almost  ad  libitum.  They  were  also 
allowed  to  drink  freely  of  the  hot  sir-op,  of  which  they  were 
extremely  fond.  A  generous  allowance  of  sirop,  or  molasses, 
was  also  given  out  to  them,  with  their  other  rations,  every  week 
during  the  winter  and  early  summer.  In  extremely  hot  weather 
it  was  thought  to  be  unfavorable  to  health,  and  was  discontinued. 
Eations  of  tobacco  were  also  served.  At  Christmas,  a  sum  of 
money,  equal  to  one  dollar  for  each  hogshead  of  sugar  made  on 
the  plantation,  was  divided  among  the  negroes.  The  last  year 
this  had  amounted  to  over  two  dollars  a  head.  It  was  usually 
given  to  the  heads  of  families.  If  any  had  been  particularly 
careless  or  lazy,  it  was  remembered  at  this  Christmas  dole.  Of 
course,  the  effect  of  this  arrangement,  small  as  was  the  amount 
received  by  each  person,  was  to  give  the  laborers  a  direct  inter- 
est in  the  economical  direction  of  their  labor :  the  advantage  of 
it  was  said  to  be  very  evident. 

Mr.  E.  had  purchased  the  plantation  but  three  years  before  of 
a  Creole,  and  afterwards  had  somewhat  increased  its  area  by  buy- 
ing out  several  poor  people,  who  had  owned  small  farms  adjoin- 
ing. He  had  greatly  extended  and  improved  the  drainage,  and 
had  nearly  doubled  the  force  of  negroes  employed  upon  it, 
adding  to  the  number  that  he  purchased  with  the  land,  nearly  as 
many  more  whom  he  had  inherited,  and  whom  he  transferred  to  it 
from  an  old  cotton  plantation  that  he  had  formerly  lived  upon. 


LOUISIANA.  661 

He  had  considerably  more  than  doubled  the  stock  of  mules 
and  oxen ;  had  built  entirely  new  cabins  for  all  the  negroes,  and 
new  sugar-works  and  stables.  His  whole  capital,  he  said,  when 
he  first  bought  the  plantation,  would  not  have  paid  half  the  price 
of  it  and  of  the  cost  of  stocking  it  as  he  had  done.  Most  men 
when  they  buy  a  plantation,  he  informed  me,  go  very  heavily  in 
debt ;  frequently  the  purchase  is  made  three  quarters  on  credit. 

"Buying  a  plantation,"  were  his  words,  "whether  a  sugar  or 
cotton  plantation,  in  this  country,  is  usually  essentially  a  gam- 
bling operation.  The  capital  invested  in  a  sugar  plantation  of  the 
size  of  mine  ought  not  to  be  less  than  $150,000.  The  pur- 
chaser pays  down  what  he  can,  and  usually  gives  security  for  the 
payment  of  the  balance  in  six  annual  installments,  with  interest 
(10  per  cent,  per  annum)  from  the  date  of  the  purchase.  Success 
in  sugar  as  well  as  cotton  planting,  is  dependent  on  so  many  cir- 
cumstances, that  it  is  as  much  trusting  to  luck  as  betting  on  a 
throw  of  dice.  If  his  first  crop  proves  a  bad  one,  he  must  bor- 
row money  of  the  Jews  in  New  Orleans  to  pay  his  first  note ; 
they  will  sell  him  this  on  the  best  terms  they  can,  and  often  at 
not  less  than  25  per  cent,  per  annum.  If  three  or  four 
bad  crops  follow  one  another,  he  is  ruined.  But  this  is  seldom 
the  case,  and  he  lives  on,  one  year  gaining  a  little  on  his 
debts,  but  almost  as  often  enlarging  them.  Three  or  four 
years  ago  there  was  hardly  a  planter  in  Louisiana  or  Missis- 
sippi that  was  not  in  very  embarrassed  circumstances,  nearly 
every  one  having  his  crops  pledged  to  his  creditors  long  before 
they  were  secured.  The  good  prices  and  good  crops  of  the 
last  few  years  have  set  them  all  on  their  legs  again ;  and  this 
year  all  the  jewelers'  shops,  and  stores  of  rich  furniture  and  dry- 
goods,  in  New  Orleans,  were  cleared  out  by  the  middle  of  the 


662  OUR    SLAVE    STATES. 

season,  and  e\erybody  feels  strong- and  cheerful.  I  have  my- 
self been  particularly  fortunate ;  I  have  made  three  good  crops 
in  succession.  Last  year  I  made  six  hundred  and  fifty  hogs- 
heads of  sugar,  and  twelve  hundred  barrels  of  molasses.  The 
molasses  alone  brought  me  a  sum  sufficient  to  pay  all  my  planta- 
tion expenses  ;  and  the  sugar  yields  me  a  clear  profit  of  twenty- 
five  per  cent,  on  my  whole  investment.  If  I  make  another  crop 
this  year  as  good  as  that,  I  shall  be  able  to  discount  my  out- 
standing notes,  and  shall  be  clear  of  debt  at  the  end  of  four 
years,  instead  of  six,  which  was  the  best  I  had  hoped  for." 

On  another  plantation  that  I  visited,  where  the  working  force 
was  considered  equal  to  one  hundred  field-hands,  the  sugar  works 
cost  $40,000,  and  seven  hundred  barrels  of  sugar  had  been 
made.  On  this  plantation  there  was  a  steam-pump,  which 
drained  the  rear  of  the  plantation  over  a  levee,  when  the 
back-water  from  the  swamp  would  have  prevented  perfect 
drainage. 

Mr.  K.  modestly  credited  his  extraordinary  success  to  "  luck ;" 
but  I  was  satisfied,  upon  examining  his  improvements,  and  con- 
sidering the  reasons,  which  he  readily  gave  me,  for  every  opera- 
tion which  he  showed,  or  described  to  me,  that  intelligence, 
study,  and  enterprise  had  seldom  better  claims  to  reward.  Ad- 
joining his  plantation  there  was  another  of  nearly  twice  the  size, 
on  which  an  equal  number  of  negroes  and  only  half  the  number 
of  cattle  were  employed ;  and  the  proprietor,  I  was  told,  had  had 
rather  bad  luck :  he  had,  in  fact,  made  but  little  more  than  half 
the  quantity  of  sugar  which  Mr.  E.  had  done.  I  inquired  of  the 
latter  if  there  was  any  advantage  in  his  soil  over  that  of  his 
neighbor's.  "  I  think  not,"  he  replied ;  "  my  best  cane  was 
made  on  a  piece  of  land  adjoining  his,  which,  before  I  bought  it, 


LOUISIANA.  663 

was  thought  unfit  for  cultivation.  The  great  advantage  I  had 
over  him  last  year,  mainly  arose  from  my  having  secured  a  more 
complete  drainage  of  all  my  land." 

The  soil  of  the  greater  part  of  the  plantation  was  a  fine,  dark, 
sandy  loam  ;  some  of  it,  at  the  greatest  distance  from  the  river, 
was  lighter  in  color,  and  more  clayey ;  and  in  one  part,  where 
there  was  a  very  slight  depression  of  the  surface  over  about  fifty 
acres,  there  was  a  dark,  stiffish  soil.  It  was  this  to  which  Mr. 
R.  alluded  as  having  produced  his  best  cane.  It  had  been  con- 
sidered too  low,  wet,  tenacious,  and  unfertile  to  be  worthy  of 
cultivation  by  the  former  owner,  and  was  covered  with  bushes 
and  weeds  when  he  took  it.  The  improvement  had  been  effected 
entirely  by  draining  and  fall-plowing.  In  fall-plowing,  as  a 
remedy  for  tenacity  of  soil,  this  gentleman's  experience  had 
given  him  great  faith.  At  various  points  on  my  tour,  I  found 
most  conflicting  opinions  upon  this  point,  many  (among  them  the 
President  of  a  State  Agricultural  Society)  having  invariably 
observed  pernicious  effects  result  from  it. 

SUGAR   CANE   IN   LOUISIANA. 

The  Sugar-cane  is  a  perennial-rooted  plant,  and  the  stalk  does 
not  attain  its  full  size,  under  favorable  circumstances,  in  less 
growing  time  than  twelve  months  ;  and  seed  does  not  usually 
form  upon  it  until  the  thirteenth  or  fourteenth  month.  This 
function  (termed  arroiving)  it  only  performs  in  a  very  hot  and 
steadily  hot  climate,  somewhat  rarely  even  in  the  West  Indies. 
The  plant  is,  at  all  stages,  extremely  susceptible  to  cold,  a  mode- 
rate frost  not  only  suspending  its  growth,  but  disorganizing  it 
so  that  the  chemical  qualities  of  its  sap  are  changed,  and  it  is 
rendered  valueless  for  sugar-making. 


664  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

As  frosts  of  considerable  severity  are  common  in  all  parts  of 
Louisiana,  during  three  months  of  the  year,  of  course  the  sugar- 
cane is  there  never  permitted  to  attain  its  full  growth.  To  so 
much  greater  perfection  does  it  arrive  in  the  "West  Indies,  that 
the  cane  produced  on  one  acre  will  yield  from  3,000  to  6,000  lbs. 
of  sugar,  while  in  Louisiana  1,000  is  considered  the  average  ob- 
tained. "  I  could  make  sugar  in  the  climate  of  Cuba,"  said  a 
Louisiana  planter  to  me,  "  for  half  the  price  that,  under  the  most 
favorable  circumstances,  it  must  cost  here."  In  addition  to  the 
natural  uncongeniality  of  the  climate,  the  ground  on  which  it 
grows  in  Louisiana,  being  lower  than  the  surface  of  the  river,  is 
much  of  the  time  made  cold  by  the  infiltration  of  moisture.  It 
is,  therefore,  only  by  reason  of  the  extreme  fertility  of  this  alluvial 
deposit,  assisted  by  a  careful  method  of  cultivation,  that  the  cane 
is  forced  to  a  state  of  maturity  which  enables  it  to  yield  an 
amount  of  sugar  which,  with  the  assistance  of  a  governmental 
protection  against  foreign  competition,  will  be  remunerative  to 
the  planter. 

THE    ECONOMY    OF    LOUISIANA. 

I  must  confess  that  there  seems  to  me  room  for  grave  doubt 
if  the  capital,  labor,  and  especially  the  human  life,  which  have 
been  and  which  continue  to  be  spent  in  converting  the  swamps 
of  Louisiana  into  sugar  plantations,  and  in  defending  them 
against  the  annual  assaults  of  the  river,  and  the  fever  and  the 
cholera,  could  not  have  been  better  employed  somewhere  else. 
It  is  claimed  as  a  great  advantage  of  Slavery,  as  well  as  of  Pro- 
tection, that  what  has  been  done  for  this  purpose  never  would 
have  been  done  without  it.  If  it  would  not,  the  obvious  reason 
is,  that  the  wages,  or  prospect  of  profit  would  not  have  been 


LOUISIANA.  665 

sufficient  to  induce  free  men  to  undergo  the  inconveniences  and 
the  danger  incident  to  the  enterprise.  There  is  now  great  wealth 
in  Louisiana ;  but  I  question  if  greater  wealth  would  not  have 
been  obtained  by  the  same  expenditure  of  human  labor,  and 
happiness,  and  life,  in  other  directions. 

CANE  CULTURE. 

Planting  commences  immediately  after  the  sugar-manufactur- 
ing season  is  concluded — usually  in  January.  New  or  fallow 
land  is  prepared  by  plowing  the  whole  surface :  on  this  planta- 
tion the  plow  used  was  made  in  Kentucky,  and  was  of  a  very 
good  model,  plowing  seven  to  nine  inches  deep,  with  a  single 
pair  of  mules.  The  ground  being  then  harrowed,  drills  are 
opened  with  a  double  mould-board  plow,  seven  feet  apart.  Cut- 
tings of  cane  for  seed  are  to  be  planted  in  them.  These  are 
reserved  from  the  crop  in  the  autumn,  when  some  of  the  best 
cane  on  the  plantation  is  selected  for  this  purpose,  while  still 
standing.*  This  is  cut  off  at  the  roots,  and  laid  up  in  heaps  or 
stacks,  in  such  a  manner  that  the  leaves  and  tops  protect  the 
stalks  from  frost.  The  heaps  are  called  mattresses  ;  they  are 
two  or  three  feet  high,  and  as  many  yards  across.  At  the  plant- 
ing season  they  are  opened,  and  the  cane  comes  out  moist  and 
green,  and  sweet,  with  the  buds  or  eyes,  which  protrude  at  the 
joints,  swelling.  The  immature  top  parts  of  the  stalk  are  cut 
off,  and  they  are  loaded  into  carts,  and  carried  to  the  ground 
prepared  for  planting.     The  carts  used  are  large,  with  high  side- 

*  It  is  only  on  the  best  plantations  that  the  seed-cane  is  selected  with  this 
care.  On  another  plantation  that  I  visited  during  the  planting  season,  I  noticed 
that  the  best  part  of  the  stalk  had  been  cut  off  for  grinding,  and  only  the  less 
valuable  part  saved  for  seed;  and  this,  I  apprehend,  is  the  general  practice. 
The  best  cuttings  probably  produce  the  most  vigorous  plants. 


666  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

boards,  and  are  drawn  by  three  mules — one  large  one  being  in 
the  shafts,  and  two  lighter  ones  abreast,  before  her.  The  drivers 
are  boys,  who  use  the-  whip  a  great  deal,  and  drive  rapidly. 

In  the  field  I  found  the  laborers  working  in  three  divisions — 
the  first,  consisting  of  light  hands,  brought  the  cane  by  arms- 
full  from  the  cart,  and  laid  it  by  the  side  of  the  furrows ;  the 
second  planted  it,  and  the  third  covered  it.  Planting  is  done  by 
laying  the  cuttings  at  the  bottom  of  the  furrow,  in  such  a  way 
that  there  shall  be  three  always  together,  with  the  eyes  of  each 
a  little  removed  from  those  of  the  others — that  is,  all  "breaking 
joints."  They  are  thinly  covered  with  earth,  drawn  over  them 
with  hoes.  The  other  tools  were  so  well  selected  on  this  planta- 
tion, that  I  expressed  surprise  at  the  clumsiness  of  the  hoes, 
particularly  as  the  soil  was  light,  and  entirely  free  from  stones. 
"  Such  hoes  as  you  use  at  the  North  would  not  last  a  negro  a 
day,"  said  the  planter. 

Cane  will  grow  for  several  years  from  the  roots  of  the  old 
plants,  and,  when  it  is  allowed  to  do  so,  a  very  considerable 
part  of  the  expense  is  avoided ;  but  the  vigor  of  the  plant  is  less 
when  growing  from  this  source  than  when  starting  from  cuttings, 
and  the  crop,  when  thus  obtained,  is  annually  less  and  less  pro- 
ductive, until,  after  a  number  of  years,  depending  upon  the  rigor 
of  the  seasons,  fresh  shoots  cease  to  spring  from  the  stubble. 
This  sprouting  of  cane  from  the  stools  of  the  last  crop  is  termed 
"  ratooning."  In  the  West  India  plantations  the  cane  is  frequently 
allowed  to  ratoon  for  eight  successive  crops.  In  Louisiana  it  is 
usual  to  plant  once  in  three  years,  trusting  to  the  ratooning  for 
two  crops  only,  and  this  was  the  practice  on  Mr.  K.'s  plantation. 
The  cost  of  sugar  growing  would  be  very  greatly  increased  if  the 
crop  needed  planting  every  year ;  for  all  the  cane  grown  upon 


LOUISIANA.  667 

an  acre  will  not  furnish  seed  for  more  than  four  acres — conse- 
quently one-twelfth  of  the  whole  of  each  crop  has  to  be  reserved 
for  the  planting  of  the  following  crop,  even  when  two-thirds  of 
this  is  to  be  of  ratoon  cane. 

Planting  is  finished  in  a  favorable  season — early  in  March. 
Tillage  is  commenced  immediately  afterwards,  by  plowing  from 
the  rows  of  young  cane,  and  subsequently  continued  very  much 
after  the  usual  plan  of  tillage  for  potatoes,  when  planted  in  drills, 
with  us.  By  or  before  the  first  of  July,  the  crop  is  all  well 
earthed  up,  the  rows  of  cane  growing  from  the  crest  of  a  rounded 
bed,  seven  feet  wide,  with  deep  water-furrows  between  each. 
The  cane  is  at  this  time  five  or  six  feet  high ;  and  that  growing 
from  each  bed  forms  arches  with  that  of  the  next,  so  as  to  com- 
pletely shade  the  ground.  The  furrows  between  the  beds  are 
carefully  cleaned  out ;  so  that  in  the  most  drenching  torrents  of 
rain,  the  water  is  rapidly  carried  off  into  the  drains,  and  thence 
to  the  swamp  ;  and  the  crop  then  requires  no  further  labor  upon 
it  until  frost  is  apprehended,  or  the  season  for  grinding  arrives. 

The  nearly  three  months'  interval,  commencing  at  the  intensest 
heat  of  summer,  corresponds  in  the  allotment  of  labor  to  the 
period  of  winter  in  Northern  agriculture,  because  the  winter 
itself,  on  the  sugar-plantations,  is  the  planting-season.  The 
negroes  are  employed  in  cutting  and  carting  wood  for  boiling 
the  cane-juice,  in  making  necessary  repairs  or  additions  to 
the  sugar-house,  and  otherwise  preparing  for  the  grinding- 
season. 

THE    GRINDING    SEASON. 

The  grinding-season  is  the  harvest  of  the  sugar-planter ;  it 
jommences  in  October,  and  continues  for  two  or  three  months, 


668  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

during  which  time,  the  greatest  possible  activity  and  the  utmost 
labor  of  which  the  hands  are  capable,  are  required  to  secure  the 
product  of  the  previous  labor  of  the  year.  Mr.  K.  assured  me 
that  during  the  last  grinding-season  nearly  every  man,  woman, 
and  child  on  his  plantation,  including  his  overseer  and  himself, 
were  at  work  fully  eighteen  hours  a  day.  From  the  moment, 
grinding  first  commences,  until  the  end  of  the  season,  it  is  never 
discontinued ;  the  fires  under  the  boiler  never  go  out,  and  the 
negroes  rest  only  for  six  hours  in  the  twenty-four,  by  relays — 
three-quarters  of  them  being  constantly  at  work. 

HARD    WORK. 

Notwithstanding  the  severity  of  the  labor  required  of  them  at 
this  time,  Mr.  E.  said  that  his  negroes  were  as  glad  as  he  was 
himself  to  have  the  time  for  grinding  arrive,  and  they  worked 
with  greater  cheerfulness  than  at  any  other  season.  How  can 
those  persons  who  are  always  so  ready  to  maintain  that  the 
slaves  work  less  than  free  laborers  in  free  countries,  and  that  for 
that  reason  they  are  to  be  envied  by  them,  account  for  this  ? 
That  at  Mr.  E.'s  plantation  it  was  the  case  that  the  slaves  en- 
joyed most  that  season  of  the  year  when  the  hardest  labor  was 
required  of  them,  I  have,  in  addition  to  Mr.  E.'s  own  evidence, 
good  reason  to  believe,  which  I  shall  presently  report.  And  the 
reason  of  it  evidently  is,  that  they  are  then  better  paid;  they 
have  better  and  more  varied  food"  and  stimulants  than  usual,  but 
especially  they  have  a  degree  of  freedom,  and  of  social  pleasure, 
and  a  variety  of  occupation  which  brings  a  recreation  of  the 
mind,  and  to  a  certain  degree  gives  them  strength  for,  and  plea- 
sure in,  their  labor.  Men  of  sense  have  discovered  that  when 
they  desire  to  get  extraordinary  exertions  from  their  slaves,  it  is 


LOUISIANA.  669 

better  to  offer  them  rewards  than  to  whip  them ;  to  encourage 
them,  rather  than  to  drive  them. 

If  the  season  has  been  favorable,  so  that  the  cane  is  strong, 
and  well  matured,  it  will  endure  a  smart  early  frost  without 
injury,  particularly  if  the  ground  is  well  drained ;  but  as  rapidly 
as  possible,  after  the  season  has  arrived  at  which  frosts  are  to  be 
expected,  the  whole  crop  is  cut,  and  put  in  mattresses,  from 
which  it  is  taken  to  the  grinding-mill  as  fast  as  it  can  be  made 
to  use  it. 

The  business  of  manufacturing  sugar  is  everywhere  carried  on 
in  connection  with  the  planting  of  the  cane.  The  shortness  of  the 
season  during  which  the  cane  can  be  used  is  the  reason  assigned 
for  this  :  the  proprietors  would  not  be  willing  to  trust  to  custom- 
mills  to  manufacture  their  produce  with  the  necessary  rapidity. 
If  cane  should  be  cultivated  in  connection  with  other  crops — that 
is,  on  small  farms,  instead  of  great  "  sugar  only"  plantations — 
neighborhood  custom-mills  would  probably  be  employed.  The 
profit  of  a  sugar-plantation  is  now  large,  much  in  proportion  to 
its  size  (if  it  be  proportionately  stocked);  because  only  a  very 
large  supply  of  cane  will  Avarrant  the  proprietor  in  providing  the 
most  economical  manufacturing  apparatus.  In  1849  there  were 
1,474  sugar  estates  in  Louisiana,  producing  236,547  hhcls.  of 
sugar ;  but  it  is  thought  that  half  of  this  quantity  was  produced 
on  less  than  200  estates — that  is,  that  one-eighth  of  the  planta- 
tions produced  one-half  the  sugar.  The  sugar-works  on  some 
of  the  large  estates  cost  over  $100,000,  and  many  of  them  manu- 
facture over  1,000,000  lbs.  per  annum.  The  profits  of  these,  in 
a  favorable  season,  are  immense. 

The  apparatus  used  upon  the  better  class  of  plantations  is 
very  admirable,  and  improvements  are  yearly  being  made,  which 


670  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

indicate  high  scientific  acquirements,  and  much  mechanical  inge- 
nuity on  the  part  of  the  inventors.  The  whole  process  of  sugar 
manufacturing,  although  chemical  analysis  proves  that  a  large 
amount  of  saccharine  is  still  wasted,  has  been  within  a  few  years 
greatly  improved,  principally  by  reason  of  the  experiments  and 
discoveries  of  the  French  chemists,  whose  labors  have  been 
directed  by  the  purpose  to  lessen  the  cost  of  beet-sugar.  Appa- 
ratus for  various  processes  in  the  manufacture,  which  they  have 
invented  or  recommended,  has  been  improved,  and  brought  into 
practical  operation  on  a  large  scale  on  some  of  the  Louisiana 
plantations,  the  owners  of  which  are  among  the  most  intelligent, 
enterprising,  and  wealthy  men  of  business  in  the  United  States. 
Forty-three  plantations  in  the  State  are  now  furnished  with  ap- 
paratus constructed  in  accordance  with  the  best  scientific  know- 
ledge on  the  subject;  and  914  are  driven  by  steam-engines — 
leaving  but  560  to  be  worked  by  horse-power.  Mr.  E.'s  sugar- 
house,  for  making  brown  sugar,  was  furnished  with  the  best  kind 
of  apparatus,  at  a  cost  of  $20,000.  Preparations  were  making 
for  the  addition  of  works  for  the  manufacture  of  white  loaf 
sugar,  which  would  cost  $20,000  more.  I  visited  one  planta- 
tion on  which  the  sugar  Avoiks  were  said  to  have  cost  over 
$100,000. 

SUGAR    MANUFACTURING. 

The  first  operation  in  the  manufacture  of  sugar  from  cane  is, 
to  express  the  saccharine  juice  it  contains ;  this  is  done  by  pass- 
ing it  twice  between  rollers,  on  the  same  plan  that  apples  are 
crushed  in  our  best  cider-mills.  A  great  deal  of  ingenuity  has 
been  applied  to  the  construction  of  the  mills  for  this  purpose, 
and  they  have  been,  from  time  to  time,  improved,  but  are  yet  far 


LOUISIANA.  671 

from  satisfactory  in  their  operation,  as  it  is  known  that  the 
crushed  cane  still  retains  nearly  one-third  of  its  original 
moisture,  with  a  large  share  of  the  saccharine  principle  which 
belonged  to  it  before  it  was  passed  between  the  rollers.  No 
plan  has  yet  been  devised  by  which  this  can  be  economically 
secured. 

The  expressed  juice  is  strained  into  a  vessel,  in  which  it  is 
heated  to  a  temperature  of  about  140°  F.,  when  it  is  clarified  by 
the  application  of  lime,  the  chemical  action  of  which  is  not,  I 
believe,  perfectly  understood ;  the  effect  is,  to  cause  a  precipitate 
of  impurities,  and  to  give  a  yellow  color  to  the  juice.  In  addi- 
tion to  this,  the  juice  is  sometimes  further  clarified  by  nitration. 
The  next  operation  is  the  reduction  of  the  cane-juice — by  the  eva- 
poration of  the  greater  part  of  its  constituent  water — to  syrup. 
This  is  effected  by  the  action  of  heat,  which  is  applied  in  different 
ways,  according  to  the  apparatus  used.  There  are  seven  different 
forms  of  this,  in  general  use  in  Louisiana.  In  the  simplest  and 
rudest,  the  juice  is  boiled  in  open  kettles ;  in  the  most  improved, 
it  is  boiled  in  vacuo,  on  the  principle  that  liquids  boil  at  lower 
temperature,  as  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere  is  removed.  The 
sugar  made  by  the  latter  process  is  much  superior  to  that  made 
by  the  former,  which  is  always  much  burnt,  and  less  pure,  and  it 
is  also  obtained  at  a  much  less  expenditure  for  fuel. 

The  syrup  having  reached  the  proper  degree  of  concentration, 
is  next  drawn  off  into  vessels,  in  which  it  remains  until  granula- 
tion takes  place.  To  separate  the  uncrystallizable  syrup  from 
the  granulated  sugar,  in  the  more  usual  method,  the  mass  of 
saccharine  matter  is  placed  in  hogsheads,  in  the  bottoms  of 
which  are  holes,  in  which  are  inserted  pieces  of  cane,  which 
reach  above  the  contents.     As  the  granulation  proceeds,  a  con- 


672  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

traction  takes  place,  which  leaves  an  opening, ahout  the  canes,  by 
which  the  remaining  liquid  drains  to  the  bottom,  and,  the  canes 
being  loosely  inserted,  it  flows  through  the  holes,  out  of  the 
hogshead,  leaving  the  comparatively  dry  sugar  now  completely 
granulated.  The  hogsheads  are  set  upon  a  staging,  or  loose 
floor,  over  a  large  vat,  in  which  the  drainage  is  collected.  This 
drainage  is  molasses.  It  is  afterwards  pumped  out  of  the  tanks 
into  barrels,  for  market ;  commonly  the  purchaser  buys  it  in  the 
tank  and  provides  barrels  for  its  removal.  Seventy  gallons  of" 
molasses  for  each  hogshead  of  sugar  is  considered  a  large  esti- 
mate. The  sugar  is  now  in  the  condition  known  as  "  Musco- 
vado," or  raw  brown  sugar.  Its  color  and  quality  depend  on  the 
caution  and  skill  that  have  been  used  in  the  manufacture,  and  the 
excellence  of  the  apparatus  employed.  The  best  Louisiana 
sugar  is  not  inferior  to  any  other  plantation  sugar  of  the  world. 

The  raw  sugar  is  further  improved  by  filtering  it  (in  the  state 
of  syrup),  through  animal  black,  or  charcoal,  made  from  bones, 
in  the  same  way  that  liquors  are  "fined."  This  is  done  on 
several  plantations.  But  the  business  of  refining  sugars  is 
mainly  carried  on  in  well-known  establishments,  in  all  our  large 
cities,  and  I  need  not  describe  it.  In  New  York,  alone,  one 
thousand  hogsheads  a  day  are  refined,  and  one  house  alone 
supplies  to  commerce  as  much  as  the  whole  manufacture  of 
France.  The  difference  between  raw  or  brown  sugar,  and 
refined  or  white  sugar,  is  simply  one  of  cleanliness  and  purity. 

Modern  improvements  have  so  greatly  reduced  the  cost  of 
refining  sugar,  that  the  consumption  of  the  pure  article,  propor 
tionately  to  that  of  the  raw,  has  very  rapidly  increased  ;  and  it 
is  probable  that  in  a  few  years  the  use  of  the  latter  will  be 
almost  entirely  discontinued  for  general  purposes.     Refined,  or 


LOUISIANA.  673 

cleaned  sugar  is,  doubtless,  more  wholesome,  and  can  only  be 
thought  less  palatable  from  habit  or  association.  Pure  sugar  is 
now  generally  considered,  by  the  best  authorities,  to  be  a  very 
digestible  and  nutritious  article  of  diet  to  most  persons — even  to 
infants — and  the  old  idea  that  it  injures  the  teeth,  except  me- 
chanically, is  considered  a  fallacy.  But  this  is  true  only,  I 
believe,  of  sugar  in  a  pure  crystallized  or  grained  state ;  when 
cooked  in  the  form  of  confectionery,  or  in  combination  with 
fatty  substances,  it  seems  to  be  very  unwholesome. 

"  ACADIENS." 

At  one  corner  of  Mr.  E.'s  plantation,  there  Avas  a  hamlet  of 
Acadians  (descendants  of  the  refugees  of  Acadia),  about  a  dozen 
small  houses  or  huts,  built  of  wood  or  clay,  in  the  old  French 
peasant  style.  The  residents  owned  small  farms,  on  which  they 
raised  a  little  corn  and  rice  ;  but  Mr.  E.  described  them  as  lazy 
vagabonds,  doing  but  little  work,  and  spending  much  time  in 
shooting,  fishing,  and  play.  He  wanted  very  much  to  buy  all 
their  land,  and  get  them  to  move  away.  He  had  already  bought 
out  some  of  them,  and  had  made  arrangements  to  get  hold  of  the 
land  of  some  of  the  rest.  He  was  willing  to  pay  them  two  or 
three  times  as  much  as  their  property  was  actually  worth,  to  get 
them  to  move  oft".  As  fast  as  he  got  possession,  he  destroyed 
their  houses  and  gardens,  removed  their  fences  and  trees,  and 
brought  all  their  land  into  his  cane-plantation. 

Some  of  them  were  mechanics.  One  was  a  very  good  mason, 
and  he  employed  him  in  building  his  sugar-works  and  refinery ; 
but  he  would  be  glad  to  get  rid  of  them  all,  and  should  then  de- 
pend entirely  on  slave  mechanics — of  these  he  had  several  already 

and  he  could  buy  more  when  he  needed  them. 
29 


674  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

Why  did  he  so  dislike  to  have  these  poor  people  living  near 
him?  Because,  he  said,  they  demoralized  his  negroes.  The 
slaves  seeing  them  living  in  apparent  comfort,  without  much 
property  and  without  steady  labor,  could  not  help  thinking  that 
it  was  not  necessary  for  men  to  work  so  hard  as  they  themselves 
were  obliged  to ;  that  if  they  were  free  they  would  not  need  to 
work.  Besides,  the  intercourse  of  these  people  with  the  negroes 
was  not  favorable  to  good  discipline.  They  would  get  the 
negroes  to  do  them  little  services,  and  would  pay  them  with 
luxuries  which  he  did  not  wish  them  to  have.  It  was  better  that 
negroes  never  saw  anybody  off  their  own  plantation ;  that  they 
had  no  intercourse  with  other  white  men  than  their  owner  or 
)verseer ;  especially,  it  was  best  that  they  should  not  see  white 
jen  who  did  not  command  their  respect,  and  whom  they  did 
not  always  feel  to  be  superior  to  themselves,  and  able  to 
command  them. 

"  CHICKEN    THIEVES." 

The  nuisance  of  petty  traders  dealing  with  the  negroes,  and 
encouraging  them  to  pilfer,  which  I  found  everywhere  a  great 
annoyance  to  planters,  seems  to  be  greater  on  the  Mississippi 
"  Coast"  than  anywhere  else.  The  traders  generally  come  on 
boats,  which  they  moor  at  night  on  the  shore,  adjoining  the  negro- 
quarters,  and  float  away  whenever  they  have  obtained  any  booty, 
with  very  small  chance  of  detection.  One  day,  during  my  visit  at 
Mr.  E.'s,  a  neighbor  called  to  apprise  him  that  one  of  these  tra- 
ding-boats was  in  the  vicinity,  that  he  might  take  precautions  to 
prevent  his  negroes  dealing  with  it.  "  The  law,"  he  observed,  with 
much  feeling,  "  is  entirely  inadequate  to  protect  us  against  these 
rascals;  it  rather  protects  th^m  than  us.     They  easily  evada 


LOUISIANA.  675 

detection  in  breaking  it ;  and  we  can  never  get  them  punished, 
except  we  go  beyond  or  against  the  law  ourselves."  To  show  me 
how  vexatious  the  evil  was,  he  mentioned  that  a  large  brass  cock 
and  some  pipe  had  been  lately  stolen  from  his  sugar-works,  and 
that  he  had  ascertained  that  one  of  his  negroes  had  taken  it  and 
sold  it  on  board  one  of  these  boats  for  seventy-five  cents,  and 
had  immediately  spent  the  money,  chiefly  for  whisky,  on  the 
same  boat.  It  had  cost  him  thirty  dollars  to  replace  it.  Mr.  R. 
said  that  he  had  lately  caught  one  of  his  own  negroes  going  to- 
wards one  of  the  "  chicken  thieves,"  (so  the  traders'  boats  are 
called)  with  a  piece  of  machinery,  that  he  had  unscrewed  from  his 
sugar-works,  which  was  worth  eighty  dollars,  and  which  might 
very  likely  have  been  sold  for  a  drink.  If  the  negro  had  succeed- 
ed in  reaching  the  boat,  as  he  would  if  he  had  not  been  on  the 
watch,  he  could  never  have  recovered  it.  There  would  have  been 
no  witnesses  to  the  sale  ;  the  stolen  goods  would  have  been  hid 
on  board  until  the  boat  reached  New  Orleans  ;  or,  if  an  officer  came 
to  search  the  boat,  they  would  have  been  dropped  into  the 
river,  before  he  got  on  board. 

This  neighbor  of  Mr.  E.'s  was  a  Creole,  and  had  been  educated 
in  France.  Conversing  on  the  inconveniences  of  Slavery,  he 
acknowledged  that  it  was  not  only  an  uneconomical  system,  but 
a  morally  wrong  one ;  "  but,"  he  said,  "  it  was  not  instituted  by 
us — we  are  not  responsible  for  it.  It  is  unfortunately  fixed  upon 
us  ;  we  could  not  do  away  with  it  if  we  wished ;  our  duty  is  only 
to  make  the  best  of  a  bad  thing ;  to  lessen  its  evils  as  much  as 
we  can,  so  far  as  we  have  to  do  with  it  individually." 

Mr.  E.  himself  also  acknowleged  Slavery  to  be  a  very  great 
evil,  morally  and  economically.  It  was  a  curse  upon  the  South ;  he 
had  no  doubt  at  all  about  it :  nothing  would  be  more  desirable 


676  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

than  its  removal,  if  it  were  possible  to  be  accomplished.  But  he 
did  not  think  it  could  be  abolished  without  instituting  great- 
er evils  than  those  sought  to  be  remedied.  Its  influence  on  the 
character  of  the  whites  was  what  was  most  deplorable.  He  was 
sorry  to  think  that  his  children  would  have  to  be  subject  to  it. 
He  thought  that  eventually,  if  he  were  able  to  afford  it,  he 
would  free  his  slaves  and  send  them  to  Africa. 

A    SLAVE    ABOLITIONIST. 

When  I  left  Mr.  E.'s,  I  was  driven  about  twenty  miles  in  a 
buggy,  by  one  of  his  house  servants.  He  was  inclined  to  be 
talkative  and  communicative  ;  and  as  he  expressed  great  affection 
and  respect  for  his  OAvner,  I  felt  at  liberty  to  question  him  on 
some  points  upon  which  I  had  always  previously  avoided  con- 
versing with  slaves.  He  spoke  rapidly,  garrulously ;  and  it  was 
only  necessary  for  me  to  give  a  direction  to  his  thoughts,  by  my 
inquiries.  I  was  careful  to  avoid  leading  questions,  and  not  to 
show  such  an  interest  as  would  lead  him  to  reply  guardedly.  I 
charged  my  memory  as  much  as  possible  with  his  very  words, 
when  this  was  of  consequence,  and  made  the  following  record  of 
the  conversation,  within  half  an  hour  after  I  left  him. 

He  first  said  that  he  supposed  that  I  would  see  that  he  was 
not  a  "  Creole  nigger ;"  he  came  from  Virginia.  He  reckoned 
the  Virginia  negroes  were  better  looking  than  those  who  were 
raised  here ;  there  were  no  black  people  anywhere  in  the  world 
who  were  so  "  well  made"  as  those  who  were  born  in  Virginia. 
He  asked  if  I  lived  in  New  Orleans ;  and  where  ?  I  told  him 
that  I  lived  at  the  North  ;  he  asked : 

"  Da's  a  great  many  brack  folks  dah,  massa?" 

"  No  ;  very  few." 


LOUISIANA.       *  677 

"Da's  a  gre?*  many  in  Virginia  ;  more'n  da  is  heah?" 
"  But  I  came  from  beyond  Virginia — from  New  York." 
He  had  heard  there  were  a  great  many  black  folk  in  New 
York.  I  said  there  were  a  good  many  in  the  city ;  but  few  in 
the  country.  Did  I  live  in  the  country  1  What  people  did  I 
have  for  servants  ?  Thought,  if  I  hired  all  my  labor,  it  must 
be  very  dear.  He  inquired  farther  about  negroes  there.  I  told 
him  they  were  all  free,  and  described  their  general  condition  ;  told 
him  what  led  them  to  congregate  in  cities,  and  what  the  effect 
was.  He  said  the  negroes,  both  slave  and  free,  who  lived  in 
New  Orleans,  were  better  off  than  those  who  lived  in  the 
country.  Why?  Because  they  make  more  money,  and  it  is 
"gayer"  there,  and  there  is  more  "  society."  He  then  drew  a 
contrast  between  Virginia — as  he  recollected  it — and  Louisiana. 
There  is  but  one  road  in  this  country.  In  Virginia,  there  are 
roads  running  in  every  direction,  and  often  crossing  each  other. 
You  could  see  so  much  more  "  society,"  and  there  was  so  much 
more  "variety"  than  here.  He  would  not  like  now  to  go  back 
to  Virginia  to  live,  because  he  had  got  used  to  this  country, 
and  had  all  his  acquaintances  here,  and  knew  the  ways  of  the 
people.  He  could  speak  French.  He  would  like  to  go  to  New 
Orleans,  though  ;  would  rather  live  in  New  Orleans  than  any 
other  place  in  the  world. 

After  a  silence  of  some  minutes,  he  said,  abruptly  ; 
"  If  I  was  free,  I  would  go  to  Virginia,  and  see  my  old 
mudder."  He  had  left  her  when  he  was  thirteen  years  old.  He 
reckoned  he  was  now  thirty-three.  "  I  don't  well  know,  dough, 
exactly,  how  old  I  is ;  but,  I  rec'lect,  de  day  I  was  taken  away, 
my  ole  mudder  she  tell  me  I  was  tirteen  year  old."  He  did  not 
like  to  come  away  at  all ;  he  "  felt  dreadful  bad ;"  but,  now  he 


678  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

was  used  to  it,  he  liked  living  here.  He  came  across  the  Blue 
Ridge,  and  he  recollected  that,  when  he  first  saw  it,  he  thought 
it  was  a  dark  piece  of  sky,  and  he  wondered  what  it  would  be 
like  when  they  came  close  to  it.  He  was  brought,  with  a  great 
many  other  negroes,  in  wagons,  to  Louisville ;  and  then  they 
were  put  on  board  a  steam-boat,  and  brought  down  here.  He 
was  sold  to  a  Creole,  and  was  put  on  this  plantation,  and  had  been 
on  it  ever  since.  He  had  been  twice  sold,  along  with  it.  Folks 
didn't  very  often  sell  their  servants  here,  as  they  did  in  Virginia. 
They  were  selling  their  servants,  in  Virginia,  all  the  time ;  but, 
here,  they  did  not  very  often  sell  them,  except  they  run  away. 
When  a  man  would  run  away,  and  they  could  not  do  anything 
with  him,  they  always  sold  him  off.  The  people  were  almost  all 
French.  "Were  there  any  French  in  New  York1?"  he  asked. 
I  told  him  there  were ;  but  not  as  many  as  in  Louisiana.  li  I 
s'pose  dah  is  more  of  French  people  in  Lusiana,  dan  dah  is  any- 
whar  else  in  all  de  world — a'nt  dah,  massa  V 

"Except  in  France." 

"Wa's  dat,  sar?" 

"  France  is  the  country  where  all  the  Frenchmen  came  from, 
in  the  first  place." 

"  Wa's  dat  France,  massa?" 

"  France  is  a  country  across  the  ocean,  the  big  water,  beyond 
Virginia,  where  all  the  Frenchmen  first  came  from ;  just  as  the 
black  people  all  came  first  from  Africa,  you  know." 

"  I've  heered,  massa,  dat  dey  sell  one  anoder  dah,  in  de  fus 
place.  Does  you  know,  sar,  was  dat  so  ?"  This  was  said  very 
gravely,  and  with  some  expression  of  emotion. 

I  explained  the  savage  custom  of  making  slaves  of  prisoners 
of  war,  and  described  the  constant  wars  of  the  native  Africans.     I 


LOUISIANA.  679 

told  him  that  they  were  better  off'  here  than  they  would  be  to 
be  the  slaves  of  cruel  savages,  in  Africa.  He  turned,  and 
looked  me  anxiously  in  the  face,  like  a  child,  and  asked: 
11  Is  de  brack  folks  better  off  to  be  here,  massa?" 
I  answered  that  I  thought  so ;  and  described  the  heathenish 
barbarism  of  the  people  of  Africa.  I  made  exception  of  Liberia, 
knowing  that  his  master  thought  of  some  time  sending  him  there, 
and  described  it  as  a  place  that  was  settled  by  negroes,  who  went 
back  there  from  this  country.  He  said  he  had  heard  of  it,  and 
that  they  had  sent  a  great  many  free  negroes  from  New  Orleans 
there. 

After  a  moment's  pause,  he  inquired,  very  gravely,  again: 
"  Why  is  it,  massa,  when  de  brack  people  is  free,  dey  wants 
to  send  'em  away  out  of  dis  country  ?" 

The  question  took  me  aback.  After  bungling  a  little — for  1 
did  not  like  to  tell  him  the  white  people  were  afraid  to  have 
them  stay  here — I  said  that  it  was  thought  to  be  a  better  place 
for  them  there.  But,  he  should  think,  that,  when  they  had  got 
used  to  this  country,  they  would  be  better  off'  here.  He  would 
not  like  to  go  out  of  this  country.  He  wouldn't  like  even  to 
go  to  Virginia,  though  Virginia  was  such  a  pleasant  country ; 
he  had  been  here  so  long,  seemed  like  this  was  the  best 
place  for  him  to  live.  To  avoid  discussion  of  the  point,  I  asked 
what  he  would  do,  if  he  was  free  1 

"  If  I  was  free,  massa ;  if  I  was  free  (with  great  animation), 

I  would well,  sar,  de  fas   thing  I  would  do,  if  I  was  free, 

I  would  go  to  work  for  a  year,  and  get  some  money  for  myself, 
— den — den — den,  massa,  dis  is  what  I  do — I  buy  me,  fus  place, 
a  little  house,  and  little  lot  land,  and  den — no;  den — den — I 
would  go  to  old  Virginny,  and  see  my  old  mudder.     Yes,  sar, 


680  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

I  would  like  to  do  dat  fus  thing;  den,  when  I  com  back,  da 
fus  thing  I'd  do,  I'd  get  me  a  wife ;  den,  I'd  take  her  to  my 
house,  and  I  would  live  with  her  dar ;  and  I  would  raise  things 
in  my  garden,  and  take  'em  to  New  Orleans,  and  sell  'em  dar, 
in  de  market.     Dat's  de  way  I  would  live,  if  I  was  free." 

He  said,  in  answer  to  further  inquiries,  that  there  were  many 
free  negroes  all  about  this  region.  Some  of  them  were  very  rich. 
He  pointed  out  to  me  three  plantations,  within  twenty  miles, 
which  were  owned  by  colored  men.  These  bought  black  folks, 
he  said,  and  had  servants  of  their  own.  They  were  very  bad 
masters,  very  hard  and  cruel — hadn't  any  feeling.  "You  might 
think  master,  dat  dey  would  be  good  to  dar  own  nation ;  but 
dey  is  not.  I  will  tell  you  de  truth,  massa ;  I  know  I'se  got  to 
answer;  and  it's  a  fact,  dey  is  very  bad  masters,  sar.  I'd  rather 
be  a  servant  to  any  man  in  de  world,  dan  to  a  brack  man.  If  I 
was  sold  to  a  brack  man,  I'd  drown  myself.  I  would  dat — I'd 
drown  myself ! — dough  I  shouldn't  like  to  do  dat  nudder ;  but  I 
wouldn't  be  sold  to  a  colored  master  for  anyting." 

If  he  had  got  to  be  sold,  he  would  like  best  to  have  an 
American  master  buy  him.  The  French  people  did  not  clothe 
their  servants  well ;  though  they  now  did  much  better  than  when 
he  first  came  to  Louisiana.  The  French  masters  were  very 
severe,  and  "  dey  whip  dar  niggers  most  to  deff — dey  whip  de 
flesh  off  of  'em." 

Nor  did  they  feed  them  as  well  as  the  Americans  did.  "Why, 
sometimes,  massa,  dey  only  gives  'em  dry  corn — don't  give  out 
no  meat  at  all."  I  told  him  this  could  not  be  so,  for  the  law 
required  that  every  master  should  serve  out  meat  to  his  negroes. 
"  Oh,  but  some  on  'em  don't  mind  Law,  if  he  does  say  so,  massa. 
Law  never  here ;  don't  know  anything  about  him.      Very  often, 


LOUISIANA.  681 

dey  only  gives  'em  dry  corn — I  knows  dat ;  I  sees  de  niggers. 
Didn't  you  see  de  niggers  on  our  plantation,  sar  ?  "Well,  you 
nebber  see  sucb  a  good-looking  lot  of  niggers  as  ours  on  any  of 
de  French  plantations,  did  you,  massa?  Why,  dey  all  looks 
fat,  and  dey's  all  got  good  clothes,  and  dey  look  as  if  dey  all 
had  plenty  to  eat,  and  hadn't  got  no  -work  to  do,  ha !  ha !  ha ! 
Don't  dey?  But  dey  does  work,  dough.  Dey  does  a  heap 
of  work.  But  dey  don't  work  so  hard  as  dey  does  on  some  ob 
de  French  plantations.  Oh,  dey  does  work  too  hard  on  dem, 
sometimes." 

"  You  work  hard,  in  the  grinding  season,  don't  you  2" 
"  Oh,  yes ;  den  we  works  hard ;  we  has  to  work  hard  den : 
harder  dan  any  oder  time  of  year.  But,  I  tell  'ou,  massa,  I 
likes  to  hab  de  grinding  season  come ;  yes,  I  does — rader  dan 
any  oder  time  of  year,  dough  we  works  so  hard  den.  I  wish  it 
was  grinding  season  all  de  year  roun' — only  Sundays." 
"Why?" 

"Because — oh,  because  it's  merry  and  lively.     All  de  brack 
people  like  it  when  we  begin  to  grind." 
"  Tou  have  to  keep  grinding  Sundays  ?" 
"  Yes,  can't  stop,  when  we  begin  to  grind,  till  we  get  tru." 
"You  don't  often  work  Sundays,  except  then?" 
"No,  massa;  nebber  works  Sundays,  except  when  der  crap's 
weedy,  and  we  Avant  to  get  tru  'fore  rain  comes  ;  den,  wen  we 
work  a  Sunday,  massa  gives  us   some  oder  day  for  holiday — 
Monday,  if  we  get  tru." 

He  said  that,  on  the  French  plantations,  they  oftener  work 
Sundays  than  on  the  American.  They  used  to  work  almost  al- 
ways on  Sundays,  on  the  French  plantations,  when  he  was  first 

brought  to  Louisiana ;  but  they  did  not  so  much  now. 
"29* 


682  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

We  were  passing  a  hamlet  of  cottages,  occupied  by  Acadians, 
or  what  the  planters  call  habitans,  poor  white,  French  Creoles. 
The  negroes  had  always  been  represented  to  me  to  despise  the  ha- 
bitans, and  to  look  upon  them  as  their  own  inferiors ;  but  William 
spoke  of  them  respectfully  ;  and,  when  I  tempted  him  to  sneer  at 
their  indolence  and  vagabond  habits,  refused  to  do  so,  but  insist- 
ed very  strenuously  that  they  were  "  very  good  people,"  orderly 
and  industrious.  He  assured  me  that  I  was  mistaken  in  sup- 
posing that  the  Creoles,  who  did  not  own  slaves,  did  not  live 
comfortably,  or  that  they  did  not  work  as  hard  as  they  ought  to 
for  their  living.  There  were  no  better  sort  of  people  than  they 
were,  he  thought. 

Some  of  the  cottagers  were  engaged  in  threshing  rice,  which 
they  performed  by  the  ancient  process  of  treading  with  horses 
walking  in  a  circle.  There  were  five  horses,  and  three  men 
driving  them.  He  explained  this  operation  to  me,  and  told  me 
that  the  negroes  beat  out  the  rice  with  sticks.  He  asked  if 
wheat  was  not  threshed  by  engines.  In  answer  to  inquiries,  he 
said  that  the  negroes  raised  rice  in  considerable  quantity  in  wet 
places  on  the  edge  of  the  swamp,  in  the  rear  of  the  plantation. 
They  also  raised  corn,  potatoes,  and  pumpkins.  His  master  al- 
lowed them  land  for  this,  and  they  sold  their  crop,  or  consumed 
it  themselves ;  generally  they  sold  it.  They  worked  at  night, 
and  on  Sundays  on  their  patches,  and  after  the  sugar  and  corn- 
crops  of  the  plantation  were  "  laid  by,"  his  master  allowed  them 
to  have  Saturday  afternoons  to  work  their  own  crops  in. 

He  again  recurred  to  the  fortunate  condition  of  the  negroes  on 
his  master's  plantation.  He  thought  it  was  the  best  plantation 
in  the  State,  and  he  did  not  believe  there  was  a  better  lot  of  ne- 
groes in  the  State ;  some  few  of  them,  whom  his  master  had 


LOUISIANA.  683 

brought  from  his  plantation,  were  old  ;  but  altogether,  they  were 
"as  right  good  a  lot  of  niggers"  as  could  be  found  anywhere. 
They  could  do  all  the  work  that  was  necessary  to  be  done  on  the 
plantation.  On  some  old  plantations  they  had  not  nearly  so 
many  negroes  as  they  needed  to  make  the  crop,  and  they  "  drove 
em  awful  hard ;"  but  it  wasn't  so  on  his  master's  :  they  could 
do  all  the  work,  and  do  it  well,  and  it  was  the  best  worked  plant- 
ation, and  made  the  most  sugar  to  the  hand,  of  any  plantation 
he  knew  of.  All  the  niggers  had  enough  to  eat,  and  were .  Avell 
clothed ;  their  quarters  were  good,  and  they  got  a  good  many 
presents. 

"Well,  now,  wouldn't  you  rather  live  on  such  a  plantation 
than  to  be  free,  William?" 

"  Oh !  no,  sir,  I'd  rather  be  free !  Oh,  yes,  sir,  I'd  like  it 
better  to  be  free ;  I  would  dat,  master." 

"  Why  would  you  ?" 

"  Why,  you  see,  master,  if  I  was  free — if  I  was/ree,  I'd  have 
all  my  time  to  myself.  I'd  rather  work  for  myself.  I'd  like  dat 
better." 

"But  then,  you  know,  you'd  have  to  take  care  of  yourself,  and 
you'd  get  poor." 

"No,  sir,  I  would  not  get  poor,  I  would  get  rich ;  for  you  see, 
master,  then  I'd  work  all  de  time  for  myself." 

"  Suppose  all  the  black  people  on  your  plantation,  or  all  the 
black  people  in  the  country  were  made  free  at  once,  what  do 
you  think  would  become  of  them  ? — what  would  they  do,  do  you 
think?  You  don't  suppose  there  would  be  much  sugar  raised, 
do  you?" 

"  Why,  yes,  master,  I  do.  Why  not,  sir  ?  What  would  de 
brack  people  do  ?     Wouldn't  dey  hab   to  work  for  dar  libben? 


684  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

and  de  wite  people  own  all  de  land — war  dey  goin'  to  work? 
Dey  hire  demself  right  out  again,  and  work  all  de  same  as  before. 
And  den,  wen  dey  work  for  demself,  dey  work  harder  dan  dey  do 
now  to  get  more  wages — a  heap  harder. ,  I  tink  so,  sir.  /would 
do  so,  sir.  I  would  work  for  hire.  I  don't  own  any  land ;  I 
hab  to  work  right  away  again  for  massa,  to  get  some  money." 

Perceiving  from  the  readiness  of  these  answers  that  the  subject 
had  been  a  familiar  one  with  him,  I  immediately  asked  :  "  The 
black  people  talk  among  themselves  about  this,  do  they ;  and 
they  think  so,  generally  V 

"  Oh !  yes,  sir ;  dey  talk  so  ;  dat's  wat  dey  tink." 

"  Then  they  talk  about  being  free  a  good  deal,  do  they  ?" 

"Yes,  sir.  Dey — dat  is,  dey  say  dey  wish  it  was  so;  dat's 
all  dey  talk,  master — dat's  all,  sir." 

His  caution  was  evidently  excited,  and  I  inquired  no  further. 
We  were  passing  a  large  old  plantation,  the  cabins  of  the  ne- 
groes upon  which  were  mere  hovels — small,  without  windows^ 
and  dilapidated.  A  large  gang  of  negroes  were  at  work  by  the 
road-side,  planting  cane.  Two  white  men  were  sitting  on  horse- 
back, looking  at  them,  and  a  negro-driver  was  walking  among 
them,  with  a  whip  in  his  hand. 

William  said  that  this  was  an  old  Creole  plantation,  and  the 
negroes  on  it  were  worked  very  hard.  There  was  three  times  as 
much  land  in  it  as  in  his  master's,  and  only  about  the  same 
number  of  negroes  to  work  it.  I  observed,  however,  that  a  good 
deal  of  land  had  been  left  uncultivated  the  previous  year.  The 
slaves  appeared  to  be  working  hard ;  they  were  shabbily  clothed, 
and  had  a  cowed  expression,  looking  on  the  ground,  not  even 
glancing  at  us,  as  we  passed,  and  were  perfectly  silent. 

"  Dem's  all  Creole  niggers,"  said  William :  "  ain't  no  Virgin- 


LOUISIANA.  685 

ny  niggers  dah.  I  reckon  you  didn't  see  no  such  looking  nig- 
gers as  dem  on  our  plantation,  did  you,  master  ?" 

After  answering  some  inquiries  about  the  levee,  close  inside 
of  which  the  road  continually  ran,  he  asked  me  about  the  levee 
at  New  York  ;  and  when  informed  that  we  had  not  any  levee, 
asked  me  with  a  good  deal  of  surprise,  how  we  kept  the  water 
out  ?  I  explained  to  him  that  the  land  was  higher  than  the 
the  water,  and  was  not  liable,  as  it  was  in  Louisiana,  to  be 
overflowed.  I  had  much  difficulty  in  making  him  understand 
this.  He  seemed  never  to  have  considered  that  it  was  not  the 
natural  order  of  things  that  land  should  be  lower  than  water,  or 
that  men  should  be  able  to  live  on  land,  except  by  excluding 
water  artificially.  At  length,  when  he  got  the  idea,  he  made  a 
curious  observation. 

"  I  suppose  dis  State  is  de  lowest  State  dar  is  in  de  world. 
Dar  ain't  no  odder  State  dat  is  so  low  as  dis  is.  I  s'pose  it  is 
five  thousand  five  hundred  feet  lower  dan  any  odder  State." 

"What?" 

"  I  s'pose,  master,  dat  dis  heah  State  is  Jive  thousand  five  hun- 
dred feet  lower  down  dan  any  odder,  ain't  it,  sir?" 

"I  don't  understand  you." 

"  I  say  dis  heah  is  de  lowest  ob  de  States,  master.  I  s'pose 
its  Jive  thousand  Jive  hundred  feet  lower  dan  any  odder ;  lower 
down,  ain't  it,  master  ?" 

"Yes,  it's  very  low." 

This  is  a  very  good  illustration  of  the  child-like  manner 
and  habits  of  the  negroes,  and  which  in  him  were  particularly 
observable,  notwithstanding  the  shrewdness  of  some  of  his  ob- 
servations. Such  a  mingling  of  simplicity  and  shrewdness,  in- 
genuousness and  slyness,  detracted  much  from  the  weight  of  his 


686  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

opinions  and  purposes  in  regard  to  freedom.  I  could  not  but 
have  a  strong  doubt  if  be  would  keep  to  bis  word,  if  tbe  oppor- 
tunity were  allowed  bim  to  try  bis  ability  to  take  care  of  him- 
self. 

EXPENSES    OF    SUGAR    PLANTATIONS. 

In  the  year  1846,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of  the  United 
States  addressed  a  circular  of  inquiries  to  persons  engaged  in 
various  business  throughout  the  country,  to  obtain  information 
of  the  national  resources.  In  reply  to  this  circular,  forty-eight 
sugar  planters,  of  St.  Mary's  Parish,  Louisiana,  having  compared 
notes,  made  the  following  statement  of  the  usual  expenses  of  a 
plantation,  which  might  be  expected  to  produce,  one  year  with 
another,  one  hundred  hogsheads  of  sugar : 

Statement. 

Household  and  family  expenses,    -----  $1,000 

Overseer's  salary,          -------  400 

Food  and  clothing  for  15  working  hands,  at  §30,  -        -  450 

Food  and  clothing  for  15  old  negroes  and  children,  at  $15,  225 
lj  per  cent,  on  capital  invested  (which  is  about  §40,000), 

to  keep  it  in  repair,        ------  600 


2,675 


50  hogsheads  sugar,  at  4  cents  per  pound  (net 

proceeds), $2,000 

25  hogshegds  sugar,  at  3  cents  per  pound  (net 

proceeds), 750 

25  hogsheads  sugar,  at  2  cents  per  pound  (net 

proceeds)         ------  500 

4,000  gallons  of  molasses,  at  10  cents,     -        -  400 

3,650 


Leaving  a  profit  of         -------        $975 

Another  gentleman  furnished  the  following  estimate  of  tbe 


$1,500 

300 

900 

200 

1,080 

80 

1,500 

500 

1,000 

500 

LOUISIANA.  687 

expenses  of  one  of  the  larger  class  of  plantations,  working  one 
hundred  slaves,  and  producing,  per  annum,  four  to  five  hundred 
hogsheads  of  sugar. 

Overseer,        -        -  '      - 

Physician's  attendance  (by  contract,  $3  ahead,  of  all  ages,) 

Yearly  repairs  to  engine,  copper  work,  resetting  of  sugar 

kettles,  etc.,  at  least  -..--. 
Engineer,  during  grinding  season,  -  -  -  -  - 
Pork,  50  pounds  per  day — say,  per  annum,  90  hogsheads, 

at  $12, 

Hoops,    ---- 

Clothing,  two  full  suits  per  annum,  shoes,  caps,  hats,  and 

100  blankets,  at  least  $15  per  slave,         ... 
Mules  or  horses,  and  cattle  to  replace,  at  least 
Implements  of  husbandry,  iron,  nails,  lime,  etc.,  at  least    - 
Factor's  commission,  1\  per  cent.,  .... 

$7,560 
It  may  be  noticed  that  in  this  estimate  the  working  force  is 
■considered  as  being  equal,  in  first  class  hands,'  to  but  one-third 
of  the  whole  number  of  slaves. 

In  the  report  of  an  Agricultural  Society,  the  gross  product  of 
one  hand,  on  a  well-regulated  sugar  estate,  is  put  clown  at  the 
cultivation  of  five  acres — producing  5000  pounds  of  sugar,  and 
125  gallons  of  molasses ;  the  former  valued  on  the  spot  at  5^ 
cents  per  pound,  and  the  latter  at  18  cents  per  gallon — together, 
$297*50.  The  annual  expenses,  per  hand,  including  wages 
paid,  horses,  mules,  and  oxen,  physician's  bills,  etc.,  $105.  An 
estate  of  eighty  negroes  annually  costs  $8,330.  The  items  are 
as  follows:  Salt  meat,  and  spirits,  $830;  clothing,  $1,200; 
medical  attendance  and  medicines,  $400  ;  Indian  corn,  $1,090  ;* 


*  Total  for  food  and  drink  of  negroes,  and  other  live  stock,  $24  per  head  of 
the  negroes,  per  annum.    For  clothing,  $15. 


688  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

overseer  and  sugar-maker's  salary,-  $1,000 ;  taxes,  $300.  The 
capital  invested  in  1,200  acres  of  land,  with  its  stock  of  slaves, 
horses,  mules,  and  working-oxen,  is  estimated  at  $147,200.  One- 
third,  or  400  acres,  heing  cultivated  annually  in  cane,  it  is  esti- 
mated, will  yield  400,000  pounds,  at  5^  cents,  and  10,000  gallons 
molasses  at  18  cents — together,  $23,800.  Deduct  annual  expense, 
as  before,  $8,330,  an  apparent  profit  remains  of  $15,470,  or 
10  3-7  per  cent,  interest  on  the  investment.  The  crop  upon 
which  these  estimates  were  based,  has  been  considered  an  uncom- 
monly fine  one. 

BOARD    AND    CLOTHING. 

These  estimates  are  all  made  by  persons  anxious  to  maintain 
the  necessity  of  protection  to  the  continued  production  of  sugar 
in  the  United  States,  and  who  are,  therefore,  under  temptation, 
from  this  desire,  if  nothing  else,  to  over-estimate  expenditures. 

I  want  those  who  believe  that  the  free  competative  system  of 
labor  is  less  humane  to  the  laborer  than  the  slave  system,  to 
observe  the  estimates,  which  are  undoubtedly  generous  ones,  at 
least,  made  by  these  most  respectable  planters,  of  the  cost  of 
maintaining  their  slaves.  In  the  first  statement,  the  cost  of 
clothing  and  boarding  a  first-rate,  hard-working  man  is  stated  to 
be  $30  a  year.  A  suit  of  winter  clothing  and  a  pair  of  thin 
pantaloons  for  summer,  a  blanket  for  bedding,  a  pair  of  shoes 
and  a  hat,  must  at  least  be  included  under  the  head  of  clothing, 
we  must  suppose ;  and  these,  however  poor,  could  not  certainly 
cost,  altogether,  less  than  ten  dollars.  For  food,  then,  we  must 
infer  that  $20  a  year  is  a  fair  estimate,  which  is  5}2  cents  a  day. 
This  is  for  the  best  hands  ;  light  hands  are  estimated  at  half  this 
cost.     Does  the  food  of  a  first-rate  laborer,  anywhere  in  the  free 


LOUISIANA.  689 

world,  cost  less  ?  The  lowest  price  paid  by  agricultural  laborers 
in  the  Free  States  of  America,  for  board,  is  21  cents  a  day,  that 
is,  $1*50  a  week;  in  manufacturing  towns  they  oftener  pay  at 
least  twice  that. 

On  most  plantations,  I  suppose,  but  by  no  means  on  all,  the 
slaves  cultivate  "patches,"  and  raise  poultry  for  themselves. 
The  produce  is  nearly  always  sold  to  get  money  to  buy  tobacco 
and  Sunday  finery.  But  these  additions  to  the  usual  allowance 
cannot  be  said  to  be  provided  for  them  by  their  masters.  The 
labor  expended  in  this  way  for  themselves  does  not  average  half 
a  day  a  week  per  slave ;  and  many  planters  will  not  allow  their 
slaves  to  cultivate  patches,  because  it  tempts  them  to  reserve  for 
and  to  expend  in  the  night-work  the  strength  they  want  em- 
ployed in  their  service  during  the  day,  and  also  because  the 
produce  thus  obtained  is  made  to  cover  much  plundering  of  their 
master's  crops,  and  of  his  live  stock.  The  free  laborer  also,  in 
addition  to  his  board,  nearly  always  spends  something  for  luxu- 
ries— tobacco,  fruit  and  confectionery,  to  say  nothing  of  dress 
and  intellectual  luxuries  and  recreations.* 

The  fact  is  that  ninety-nine  in  a  hundred  of  our  free  laborers, 
from  choice  and  not  from  necessity — for  the  same  provisions  cost 


*  "  Most  persons  allow  their  negroes  to  cultivate  a  small  crop  of  their  own. 
For  a  number  of  reasons  the  practice  is  a  bad  one.  It  is  next  to  impossible  to 
keep  them  from  working  the  crop  on  the  Sabbath.  They  labor  at  night  when 
they  should  be  at  rest.  There  is  no  saving  more  than  to  give  them  the  same 
amount;  for,  like  all  other  animals,  the  negro  is  only  capable  of  doing  a  certain 
amount  of  work  without  injury.  To  this  point  he  may  be  worked  at  his  regular 
task,  and  any  labor  beyond  this  is  an  injury  to  both  master  and  slave.  They 
will  pilfer  to  add  to  what  cotton  or  corn  they  have  made.  If  they  sell  the  crop 
and  trade  for  themselves,  they  are  apt  to  be  cheated  out  of  a  good  portion  of 
their  labor.  They  will  have  many  things  in  their  possession,  under  color  ot 
purchases,  which  we  know  not  whether  they  have  obtained  honestly." — South- 
ern Cultivator. 


690  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

more  in  Louisiana  than  they  do  anywhere  in  the  northern  States — 
live,  in  respect  to  food,  at  least  four  times  as  well  as  the  average  of 
the  hardest  worked  slaves  on  the  Louisiana  sugar  plantations. 
And  for  two  or  three  months  in  the  year,  it  is  known  that  these 
are  worked  with  much  greater  severity  than  free  lahorers  at  the 
North  ever  are.  For  on  no  farm,  and  in  no  factory  or  mine, 
even  when  double  wages  are  paid  for  night-work,  did  I  ever  hear 
of  men  or  women  working  regularly  eighteen  hours  a  day.  If 
ever  done,  it  is  only  when  some  accident  makes  it  especially 
desirable  during  a  very  few  days. 

I  have  not  compared  the  comfort  of  the  light  hands,  in  which, 
besides  the  aged  and  children,  are  evidently  included  most  of 
the  females  of  the  plantation,  with  that  of  factory  girls  and  ap- 
prentices ;  but  who  of  those  at  the  North  was  ever  expected  to 
find  board  at  four  cents  a  day,  and  obliged  to  save  money 
enough  out  of  such  an  allowance  to  provide  him  or  herself  with 
clothing  ?  but  that,  manifestly  and  beyond  the  smallest  doubt  of 
error  (except  in  favor  of  free  labor),  expresses  the  condition  of 
the  Louisiana  slave.  Forty-eight  of  the  most  worthy  planters 
of  the  State  attest  it  in  an  official  document,  published  by  order 
of  Congress. 

There  is  no  reason  for  supposing  that  the  slaves  are  much,  if 
any,  better  fed  elsewhere  than  in  Louisiana.  I  was  expressly 
told  in  Virginia  that  I  should  find  them  better  fed  in  Louisiana, 
because  the  laws  of  this  State  made  it  necessary  for  owners  to 
give  them  a  certain  allowance  of  meat  and  corn.  In  the  same 
Eeport  of  Mr.  Secretary  Walker,  a  gentleman  in  South  Carolina 
testifies  that  he  considers  that  the  "furnishing"  (food  and  cloth- 
ing) of  '"  full-tasked  hands"  costs  fifteen  dollars  a  year.* 
*  P.  W.  Praser,  p.  574,  Pub.  Doc.  VI.,  1846. 


LOUISIANA.  691 

The  United  States  army  is  generally  recruited  from  our  labor- 
ing class,  and  a  well-conditioned  and  respectable  laborer  is 
seldom  induced  to  join  it.  The  following,  taken  from  an  ad- 
vertisement, for  recruits,  in  the  Richmond  Enquirer,  shows  the 
food  provided : 

"Daily  Eations. — One  and  a  quarter  pounds  of  beef,  one 
and  three-sixteenths  pounds  of  bread ;  and  at  the  rate  of  eight 
quarts  of  beans,  eight  pounds  of  sugar,  four  pounds  of  coffee, 
two  quarts  of  salt,  four  pounds  of  candles,  and  four  pounds  of 
soap,  to  every  hundred  rations." 

Prom  an  advertisement  for  slaves  to  be  hired  by  the  year,  to 
work  on  a  canal,  in  the  Daily  Georgian  : 

"  Weekly  Allowance. — They  will  be  provided  with  three 
and  a  half  pounds  of  pork  or  bacon,  and  ten  quarts  of  gourd 
seed  corn  per  week,  lodged  in  comfortable  shanties,  and  attended 
by  a  skillful  physician." 

The  expense  of  boarding,  clothes,  taxes,  and  so  forth,  of  a 
male  slave,  is  estimated  by  Eobt.  C.  Hall,  a  Maryland  planter, 
at  $45  per  annum ;  this  in  a  climate  but  little  milder  than  that  of 
New  York,  and  in  a  breeding  state.  By  J.  D.  Messenger,  Jeru- 
salem, Virginia  :  "  the  usual  estimate  for  an  able-bodied  laborer — 
three  barrels  of  corn,  and  250  pounds  of  well-cured  bacon, 
seldom  using  beef  or  pork ;  peas  and  potatoes  substitute  about 
one-third  the  allowance  of  bread,"  (maize).  By  E.  Gr.  Morris, 
Amherst  County,  Va. :  "  not  much  beef  is  used  on  our  estates  ; 
bacon,  however,  is  used  much  more  freely,  three  pounds  a  week 
being  the  usual  allowance.  The  quantity  of  milk  used  by  slaves 
is  frequently  considerable." — Pat.  Office  Report,  1848. 

The  following  "Essay  on  the  Management  of  Slaves,  by 
Eobert  Collins,  of  Macon,  Georgia,"  has  been  printed  in  many 


692  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

of  the  Southern  papers,  and  will,  show  the  ideal  of  slave  life, 
under  the  most  intelligent  and  humane  owners,  and  in  the  most 
favorable  circumstances. 

"  In  attempting  an  essay  upon  this  subject,  we  can  gather  but  little 
aid  from  the  long  historical  record  which  we  have  of  the  institution : 
for,  although  we  learn  that  slaves  were  nearly  always  employed  in  labor, 
we  yet  see  no  account  of  how  they  were  clothed  or  fed ;  nor  find  any  data 
of  comparative  results  of  different  modes  of  treatment,  or  labor,  whereby 
we  can  be  guided  in  our  search  after  a  system,  comprising  the  greatest 
benefits.  We  must,  therefore,  rely  upon  the  observation,  experience,  and 
practice  of  the  present  time,  as  the  only  sources  of  useful  and  correct 
information  upon  the  subject. 

"  The  writer  has  been  accustomed  to  Slavery,  from  his  earliest  days, 
and,  for  thirty  years,  has  been  much  interested  in  their  management, 
both  on  plantations  and  public  works  ;  and  has,  therefore,  been  prompt- 
ed, by  his  own  interests,  as  well  as  inclination,  to  try  every  reasonable 
mode  of  management,  treatment,  living,  and  labor  ;  and  the  results  of  a 
long  experience  have  fully  satisfied  him,  and  proven  beyond  doubt,  that 
the  best  interests  of  all  parties  are  most  promoted  by  a  kind  and  liberal 
treatment  on  the  part  of  the  owner,  and  the  requirement  of  proper  dis- 
cipline and  strict  obedience  on  the  part  of  the  slave.  Indeed,  the  Crea- 
tor seems  to  have  planted  in  the  negro  an  innate  principle  of  protection 
against  the  abuse  of  arbitrary  power  ;  and  it  is  this  law  of  nature  which 
imperatively  associates  the  true  interest  of  the  owner  with  the  good 
treatment  and  comfort  of  the  slave.  Hence,  abuses  and  harsh  treatment 
carry  their  own  antidote,  as  all  such  cases  recoil  upon  the  head  of  the 
owner.  Every  attempt  to  force  the  slave  beyond  the  limits  of  reasonable 
service,  by  cruelty  or  hard  treatment,  so  far  from  extorting  more  work, 
only  tends  to  make  him  unprofitable,  unmanageable — a  vexation  and  a 
curse. 

"  It  being,  therefore,  so  manifestly  against  the  interest  of  all  parties,  as 
well  as  opposed  to  the  natural  feelings  of  humanity,  and  refinement,  and 
the  civilization  of  the  age,  a  case  of  cruelty,  or  abuse  of  a  slave  by  Ms 
owner,  is  seldom  known,  and  universally  condemned. 

"  NEGKO   HOUSES. 
*  *  *  *  -X-  •*  * 

"  The  houses  should  be  placed,  if  possible,  under  the  shades  of  the 


LOUISIANA.  693 

native  forests ;  but,  where  that  cannot  be  done,  the  china,  or  mulberry, 
or  some  quick  growth  should  be  immediately  transplanted,  so  as  to  cover 
the  buildings,  in  some  degree,  from  the  rays  of  the  summer's  sun.  The 
buildings  should  be  placed  about  two  feet  above  the  ground,  so  that 
the  air  can  pass  freely  under  them,  and  also  be  well  ventilated  with  doors 
and  windows.  They  should  be  sufficiently  large — say  about  sixteen  by 
twenty  feet — and  but  one  family  should  be  put  in  a  house ;  there  is  no- 
thing more  injurious  to  health,  or  demoralizing  in  feeling,  than  crowding 
them  together.  They  had  much  better  sleep  in  the  open  air,  than  in 
crowded,  tight  houses.  Each  house,  or  family,  should  be  furnished  with 
suitable  bedding  and  blankets  ;  for  while  a  proper  outfit  costs  a  few 
dollars  in  the  beginning,  they  save  twice  as  much  in  the  end — they  add 
greatly  to  the  comfort  and  health  of  the  slave,  and  enable  him  much 
better  to  perform  the  labor  required. 

"  FEEDING    OF    SLAVES. 

"In  former  years,  the  writer  tried  many  ways  and  expedients  to  econo- 
mize in  the  provision  of  slaves,  by  using  more  of  the  vegetable  and  cheap 
articles  of  diet,  and  less  of  the  more  costly  and  substantial.  But  time 
and  experience  have  fully  proven  the  error  of  a  stinted  policy ;  and,  for 
many  years,  the  following  uniform  mode  has  been  adopted,  with  much 
success  and  satisfaction  both  to  the  owner  and  to  the  slave. 

"  The  allowance  now  given  per  week  to  each  hand — men,  women,  boys, 
and  girls,  that  are  old  enough  to  go  in  the  field  to  work — is  five  pounds 
of  good,  clean  bacon,  and  one  quart  of  molasses,  with  as  much  good 
bread  as  they  require  ;  and  in  the  fall,  or  sickly  season  of  the  year,  or 
on  sickly  places,  the  addition  of  one  pint  of  strong  coffee,  sweetened 
with  sugar,  every  morning,  before  going  to  work.  These  provisions  are 
given  out  on  some  designated  night  of  each  week  ;  and,  for  families,  it 
is  put  together  ;  but,  to  single  hands,  it  is  given  to  each  separately,  and 
they  then  unite  in  squads,  or  messes,  and  have  their  meat  cooked  for 
them,  by  a  woman  who  is  detailed  for  that  purpose,  or  keep  it  to  them- 
selves, as  they  please.  Their  bread  is  baked  daily,  in  loaves,  by  a  wo- 
man who  is  kept  for  that  duty.  Each  house,  or  family,  should  have  a 
garden  attached,  for  raising  their  own  vegetables. 

"  This  mode  of  allowancing  relieves  their  owner  from  much  trouble,  in 
daily  supervising  their  provisions,  and  is  much  more  satisfactory  to  the 
slave.  Under  this  system  of  treatment,  a  word  of  complaint,  in  relation 
to  their  living,  is  seldom  heard.     Some  planters,  however,  differ  on  this 


694  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

subject,  and  prefer  the  plan  of  cooking  and  eating  at  one  common  table  ; 
and,  it  is  possible,  with  a  small  number  of  hands,  and  where  the  owner 
is  willing  to  devote  a  good  deal  of  attention  to  that  matter,  that  he  may 
save  a  small  amount ;  but  it  will  not  be  as  satisfactory,  and  it  will,  prob- 
ably, not  gain  enough  to  pay  for  the  trouble.  Children,  of  course,  must 
be  fed  and  attended  to,  as  their  wants  require ;  they  are  not  likely  to  be 
neglected,  as  they  pay  a  good  interest  upon  the  amount  of  care  and  ex- 
pense bestowed  upon  them. 

"  NEGKO    CLOTHING. 

"  The  proper  and  usual  quantity  of  clothes,  for  plantation  hands,  is  two 
suits  of  cotton,  for  spring  and  summer,  and  two  suits  of  woolen,  for 
winter  ;  four  pair  of  shoes,  and  three  hats,  which,  with  such  articles  of 
dress  as  the  negro  merits,  and  the  owner  chooses  to  give,  make  up  the 
year's  allowance.  Neatness  in  dress  is  important  to  the  health,  comfort, 
and  pride  of  a  negro — all  of  which  should  be  encouraged  by  the  owner. 
They  should  be  induced  to  think  well  of  themselves ;  and  the  more 
pride  and  self-respect  you  can  instill  into  them,  the  better  they  will  be- 
have, and  the  more  serviceable  they  will  be  ;  so  they  should  always  be 
aided  and  encouraged  in  dressing,  and  their  own  peculiar  fancies  in- 
dulged to  a  reasonable  extent. 

"  HOURS    OF    WORK. 

"  In  the  winter  time,  and  in  the  sickly  season  of  the  year,  all  hands 
should  take  breakfast  before  leaving  their  houses.  This  they  can  do,  and 
get  to  work  by  sunrise,  and  stop  no  more  until  twelve  o'clock  ;  then 
rest  one  hour  for  dinner  ;  then  work  until  night.  In  the  spring  and 
summer,  they  should  go  to  work  at  light,  and  stop  at  eight  o'clock,  for 
breakfast ;  then  work  until  twelve  o'clock,  and  stop  two  hours  for  din- 
ner ;  and  work  from  two  till  night.  All  hands  stop  on  Saturday,  at 
twelve  o'clock,  and  take  the  afternoon  for  cleaning  up  their  houses  and 
clothes,  so  as  to  make  a  neat  appearance  on  Sunday  morning. 

"task  work. 
"  The  usual  custom  of  planters  is,  to  work  without  tasks,  during  the 
cultivation  of  their  crops  ;  but,  in  gathering  cotton,  tasks  are  common, 
and  experience  has  proven  that,  whenever  work  is  of  that  kind  of  cha- 
racter, it  is  much  better  to  do  so.  If  the  overseer  has  judgment,  he  will 
get  more  work,  and  the  negroes  will  be  better  satisfied  ;  he  will  gene- 
rally make  an  effort,  and  gain  time,  to  devote  to  his  own  jobs  or  plea- 
sures. 


LOUISIANA.  695 

"  NEGRO   CROPS. 

"  It  was,  at  one  period,  much  the  custom  of  planters,  to  give  each 
hand  a  small  piece  of  land,  to  cultivate  on  their  own  account,  if  they 
chose  to  do  so  ;  but  this  system  has  not  been  found  to  result  well.  It 
gives  an  excuse  for  trading,  and  encourages  a  traffic  on  their  own 
account,  and  presents  a  temptation  and  opportunity,  during  the  process 
ef  gathering,  for  an  unscrupulous  fellow  to  mix  a  little  of  his  master's 
produce  with  his  own.  It  is  much  better  to  give  each  hand,  whose  con- 
duct has  been  such  as  to  merit  it,  an  equivalent  in  money  at  the  end  of 
the  year :  it  is  much  less  trouble,  and  more  advantageous  to  both 
parties. 

"  DISCIPLINE. 

"  In  regard  to  the  general  management  or  discipline  on  plantations  or 
public  works,  it  is  of  great  consequence  to  have  perfect  system  and  regu- 
larity, and  a  strict  adherence  to  the  rules  that  may  be  adopted  for  the 
government  of  the  place.  Each  hand  should  know  his  duty,  and  be 
required  to  perform  it ;  but,  as  before  intimated,  the  owner  has  nothing 
to  gain  by  oppression  or  over-driving,  but  something  to  lose :  for  he 
cannot,  by  such  means,  extort  more  work.  But  still,  if  it  becomes 
necessary  to  punish  the  negro  for  not  doing  his  duty,  or  the  violation  of 
rules,  it  does  net  make  him  revengeful,  as  it  would  an  Indian  or  white 
man,  but  it  rather  tends  to  win  his  attachment,  and  promote  his  hap- 
piness and  well-being.  Slaves  have  no  respect  or  affection  for  a  master 
who  indulges  them  over-much,  or  who,  from  fear,  or  false  humanity, 
fails  to  assume  that  degree  of  authority  necessary  to  promote  industry, 
and  enforce  good  order.  At  the  same  time,  proper  and  suitable  indul- 
gences and  privileges  should  be  granted  for  the  gratification  and  amuse- 
ment of  the  negro  ;  but  they  should  always  be  exercised  by  special 
permission — for  they  are  a  people  ever  ready  to  practice  upon  the  old 
maxim  of '  give  an  inch,  and  take  an  ell.' 

"  Negroes  are  by  nature  tyrannical  in  their  dispositions  ;  and,  if 
allowed,  the  stronger  will  abuse  the  weaker  ;  husbands  will  often  abuse 
their  wives  and  mothers  their  children — so  that  it  becomes  a  prominent 
duty  of  owners  and  overseers  to  keep  peace,  and  prevent  quarreling  and 
disputes  among  them  ;  and  summary  punishment  should  follow  any  vio- 
lation of  this  rule. 

"  Slaves  are  also  a  people  that  enjoy  religious  privileges.  Many  of 
them  place  much  value  upon  it ;  and.  to  every  reasonable  extent,  that  ad- 
vantage should  be  allowed  them.     They  are  never  injured  by  preaching, 


696  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

but  thousands  become  wiser  and  better  people,  and  more  trustworthy 
servants,  by  their  attendance  at  church.  Eeligious  services  should  be 
provided  and  encouraged  on  every  plantation.  A  zealous  and  vehement 
style,  both  in  doctrine  and  manner,  is  best  adapted  to  their  temperament ; 
they  are  good  believers  in  mysteries  and  miracles,  ready  converts,  and 
adhere  with  much  pertinacity  to  their  opinions,  when  formed. 

"  No  card-playing,  nor  gambling  of  any  description  should  be  allowed, 
under  severe  penalties.  And  the  Maine  liquor  law  should  be  rigidly 
enforced  on  every  estate. 

"marrying  among  slaves. 
"  Taking  wives  and  husbands  among  their  fellow-servants,  at  home, 
should  be  as  much  encouraged  as  possible ;  and  although  inter-marrying 
with  those  belonging  to  other  estates  should  not  be  absolutely  prohibited, 
yet  is  always  likely  to  lead  to  difficulties  and  troubles,  and  should  be 
avoided  as  much  as  possible.  They  cannot  live  together  as  they  ought, 
and  are  constantly  liable  to  separation,  in  the  changing  of  property.  It 
is  true  they  usually  have  but  little  ceremony  in  forming  these  connections, 
and  many  of  them  look  upon  their  obligation  to  each  other  very  lightly ; 
but  in  others,  again,  is  found  a  degree  of  faithfulness,  fidelity,  and  affec- 
tion, which  owners  admire  ;  and  hence  they  always  dislike  to  separate 
those  manifesting  such  traits  of  character. 

"  SICKNESS. 

"  Proper  and  prompt  attention,  in  cases  of  sickness,  is  a  vastly  import- 
ant matter  among  slaves.  Many  plantations  are  inconvenient  to  medical 
aid ;  therefore  owners  and  overseers  should  always  understand  the  treat- 
ment of  such  common  cases  as  usually  occur  on  places  under  their  charge. 
This  is  easily  done  ;  and  many  times  a  single  dose  of  some  mild  and  well 
understood  medicine,  given  at  the  beginning  of  a  complaint,  removes  the 
cause,  and  effects  a  cure  at  once,  when  delay  or  neglect  might  render  it 
a  serious  one.  A  few  common  medicines,  with  plain  and  proper  directions 
pasted  on  each  bottle,  should  be  kept  on  all  plantations. 

"  A  bountiful  supply  of  red  pepper  should  be  cultivated,  and  kept  on 
hand,  and  used  freely,  in  damp  sections,  where  sore  throats  are  apt  to 
prevail,  and  also  in  all  fall  complaints.  It  acts  by  creating  a  glow  over 
the  whole  body,  without  any  narcotic  effect ;  it  produces  general  arterial 
excitement,  and  prevents,  in  a  considerable  degree,  that  languor  and 
apathy  of  the  system  which  renders  it  susceptible  to  chills  and  fevers 


LOUISIANA.  697 

it  may  be  given  in  any  way  or  form  which  their  taste  or  fancy  may 
dictate." 

Mr.  M.  W.  Phillips,  an  ardent  and  constant  writer  on  agricul- 
tural economy,  in  connection  with  Slavery,  and  a  most  philan- 
thropic man,  writing  to  the  New  York  Tribune,  for  the  very 
purpose  of  proving  that  the  condition  of  the  slaves  is  better  than 
that  of  free-laborers,  says,  of  his  own  model  plantation : 

"We  now  have  in  this  estate  1,168  acres  of  land;  on  the  place  66 
negroes,  twenty  work  horses  and  mules,  five  yoke  of  choice  oxen. 

"  We  plant  210  or  280  acres  in  cotton,  and  125  in  corn. 

"  We  send  to  the  field  thirty-four  negroes,  old  and  young,  rating  them 
at  thirty  hands  ;  have  one  carpenter  ;  a  woman  who  cooks  for  the  above, 
with  all  children  in  charge. 

"  There  are  five  women,  one  boy  of  14,  a  girl  of  7,  and  two  small  boys 
of  3  and  4  (which  have  been  rather  puny  to  endure  ordinary  treatment), 
about  the  house.  Another  woman  cooks  and  washes  for  overseer 
(belonging  to  him).  Thus  ten  are  deducted  from  the  sixty-six,  leaving 
fifty-six,  who  get,  weighed  out  daily,  twenty-two  to  twenty-four  pounds 
of  fat  bacon.  Of  these,  three  are  children  from  2  months  to  6  years  old 
(seven  and  a  half  ounces  of  bacon  a  day  each;  three  pounds  a  week). 
In  addition,  they  have  unlimited  access  to  vegetables  and  meal.  No 
cooking  permitted  in  negro  houses — all  cooked  by  the  cook  at  her 
house,  thirty-two  by  sixteen,  with  large  brick  chimney  and  brick  oven. 
I  do  not  know  what  meat  each  one  gets,  only  that  all  are  satisfied.  I 
prefer  that  children  should  have  at  dinner  the  pot-liquor  and  bread,  with 
not  much  meat,  finding  our  children  are  healthier.  We  churn  for  butter 
every  day,  negroes  getting  all  sour  milk,  but  excluding  from  children. 

,;  We  have  an  overseer  at  $600  ;  we  furnish  meat  and  bread  for  him- 
self, wife  and  three  children,  a  house  with  two  rooms  and  a  passage,  a 
kitchen,  store-room  and  horse  bed.  Our  rule  is,  to  eat  breakfast  before 
going  to  work  from  middle  of  October  to  March,  then  an  hour  for  din- 
ner ;  in  the  summer  they  take  breakfast  out  with  them,  and  eat  from  six 
to  seven  ;  come  to  dinner  at  twelve.  About  1st  of  May,  all  hands  stop 
from  twelve  till  three  o'clock,  at  which  time  nothing  is  done,  unless  to 
wash  babes  by  mothers  ;  this  is  nooning. 

u  ^ye  give  iw0  sumrner  suits,  and  a  straw  hat,  two  winter  suits,  a  wool 
hat  and  two  pair  of  shoes  ;  a  blanket  worth  two  dollars,  every  two  years, 
30 


698  OUIl     SLAVE     STATES. 

"  All  wood  is  hauled  for  fires  in  winter,  and  for  cooking ;  washing  done 
every  Saturday  afternoon  by  all  the  females  ;  all  clothing  made  by 
house  women.     Cistern  water  used  entirely. 

"  We  lost  one  of  our  best  fellows  a  year  ago.  His  death  was  caused 
by  a  mule,  though  he  lived  for  months  after  the  injury,  not  having  his 
mind,  or  able  to  go  about.  Also,  three  children,  born  at  a  birth,  not 
living  an  hour.  This  comprises  all  deaths  for  some  five  to  ten  years. 
Our  children  are  as  hearty  and  as  saucy  boys  and  girls  as  can  be  shown 
anywhere. 

"  We  require  all  negroes  to  attend  family  worship  every  Sabbath  morn 
and  eve — at  the  latter  time  an  hour  is  spent  iu  instruction  by  myself,  or 
frequently  by  some  visiting  preacher.  They  all  are  required  to  attend 
preaching  one  Sabbath  in  each  month,  two  and  a  half  miles  off,  and  can 
go  further  another  Sabbath  if  they  desire  it.  We  permit  no  wives  or 
husbands  off  the  place,  require  marriages  with  a  proper  ceremony, 
always  providing  partners. 

"  Our  women  with  young  children  come  to  the  cook-house  to  nurse  their 
children  at  breakfast,  at  nine  and  a  half,  twelve,  and  in  the  afternoon 
(nooning,  of  course,  excepted,  as  they  are  then  in,  but  always  three  times 
a  day,  besides  the  noon).  Each  family  has  a  house  16  x  18,  brick 
chimney,  and  house  two  to  three  feet  above  earth. 

"  Many  negroes  here  have  as  comfortable  quarters  as  any  man  would 
need,  even  to  sleeping  between  sheets.  My  carpenter  is  employed  at- 
home.  Yv^e  make  corn  and  meat  usually.  For  twenty-three  years  I 
have  sold  more  of  each  than  I  have  bought  by  a  fair  margin. 

"  Negroes  have  no  need  of  furniture  ;  they  have  bedsteads,  bedding  and 
seats,  with  chests  or  trunks  for  clothes — about  as  much  as  laborers  have 
any  where.  This  is  unimportant,  yet  I  like  to  be  square  up  before  all  people. 

"  We  might  make  more  money  by  a  different  treatment,  and  we  might 
spend  more  money  on  our  negroes,  if  we  would  listen  to  questionable 
friends,  of  neither  negroes  nor  ourselves.  We  act  from  principle,  and 
never  cared  to  shape  our  course  to  please  man.  I  have  examined  much 
into  the  treatment  of  slaves,  having,  some  twenty  years  ago,  practiced 
medicine,  with  an  opportunity  to  see  how  different  diet  and  treatment 
affected  health.  Half  pound  of  sound  bacon,  with  vegetables  and  bread 
iu  plenty,  and  cistern-water,  is,  in  my  opinion,  a  certain  preventive  of 
disease  ;  but  the  cook  must  be  watched,  and  water  carriers  noticed. 
Negroes  fed  on  three-quarters  of  a  pound  of  bacon  and  bread  are  more 
prone  to  disease  than  if  with  less  meat,  but  with  vegetables. 


LOUISIANA.  699 

"  We  do  not  permit  negroes  to  stir  out  before  day,  nor  to  get  wet  if  pos- 
sible, nor  do  any  night  work,  save  feeding  horses  and  shelling  corn.  We 
allow  no  swearing,  calling  harsh  names,  wrangling,  nor  any  encroach- 
ment on  each  other's  rights.  We  give  a  day,  or  a  half-day's  holiday 
occasionally  daring  the  summer,  two  to  four  days  at  Christmas,  and  a 
dance  when  the  young  ones  desire  it.  No  work  done  yesterday  or  to 
day,  having  had  to  work  very  hard  to  get  out  of  the  grass,  and,  working 
so  faithfully  without  trouble,  we  gave  two  days'  holiday.  Although  very 
hard  work  this  year,  owing  to  so  much  rain,  no  grown  negro  has  required 
more  than  calling  his  name,  and  telling  him  to  hurry.  Our  present 
manager  has  been  here  three  years,  and  in  the  vicinity  another  year. 

"  I  have  written  thus  freely  to  let  many  of  your  readers  see  that  all 
negroes  are  not  treated  here  as  many  would  make  out.  I  believe  I  could 
show  families  treated  much  better  than  my  own  is ;  but  my  own  know 
all  the  circumstances,  and  are  as  well  content  as  any  laborers  are  on 
this  broad  earth. 

"  I  write  not  to  please,  having  nothing  to  gain  by  it,  nor  with  any 
expectation  of  adding  one  mite  to  the  happiness  of  many  of  your 
readers  who  make  themselves  miserable  by  trying  to  attend  to  other 
people's  affairs.  I  belong  to  the  Southern  wing  of  the  Democracy,  and 
have  nothing  to  ask  for.  Yet  I  would  desire  that  all  my  fellow-citizens 
of  this  Kepublic  would  work  for  the  common  good,  so  that  we  may  fulfill 
the  great  object  of  our  mission — serve  God  with  fidelity. 

"  I  saw  more  destitution  in  Philadelphia,  in  the  winter  of  1828,  than 
I  have  seen  in  the  South  in  forty  years.  I  have  seen  a  negro  in  Phila- 
delphia buy  one  cent's  worth  of  wood.  I  never  saw  negroes  beg  for 
food  but  those  belonging  to  one  man.  These  are  facts.  We  have  hard 
masters  here,  but  they  are  more  talked  against  than  hard  masters  are 
there.  I  have  seen  an  able-bodied  negro  woman  in  Philadelphia/ — a 
good  cook,  washer  and  ironer — work  for  months  for  her  food  only,  while 
here,  even  if  free,  she  would  have  been  paid  $10  to  $20  per  month. 

"  The  poor  white  folks  of  the  South  fare  worse  than  slaves.  Laziness 
fares  not  well  anywhere. 

"Yours,  with  respect,  etc.,. 

"  M.  W.  Phillips. 
"Log  Hall,  Edwards,  Miss.,  July  9,  1854." 

What  advantage  have  the  slaves,  under  this  most  enlightened 
and   humane   management,   over  the    occupants    of  our   poor- 


700  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

houses  ?  In  all  the  items  of  food,-  oversight,  clothing,  bedding, 
furniture,  religious  instruction,  medical  attendance,  defense  from 
quarreling — in  everything  except  the  amount  of  labor,  and  the 
provision  of  partners,  our  poor-houses  provide  (so  far  as  I  know, 
and  I  have  visited  not  a  few),  at  least  equally  well.  But  our 
laboring  people  are  not  generally  anxious  to  be  admitted  to  the 
poor-house.  Far  from  it.  They  universally  consider  it  a  de- 
plorable misfortune  which  obliges  them  to  go  to  it.  Our  poor- 
houses  are  seldom  crowded.  They  seldom,  in  the  rural  districts, 
contain  any  but  a  few  imbeciles  and  cripples. 

Louisiana  is  the  only  State  in  which  meat  is  required,  by  law, 
to  be  furnished  the  slaves.  I  believe  it  is  four  pounds  a  week, 
with  a  barrel  of  corn  (flour  barrel  of  ears  of  maize)  per  month, 
and  salt.  In  North  Carolina  the  prescribed  allowance  is  "a 
quart  of  corn  per  day."  In  no  other  States  does  the  law  define 
the  quantity,  but  it  is  required,  in  general  terms,  to  be  sufficient 
for  the  health  of  the  slave ;  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  suffering 
from  want  of  food  is  exceedingly  rare.  The  food  is  everywhere, 
however,  coarse,  crude,  and  wanting  in  variety ;  much  more  so 
than  that  of  our  prison  convicts.  In  fact,  under  favorable  cir- 
cumstances, on  the  large  plantations  the  slave's  allowance  does 
not  equal  either  in  quantity  or  quality  that  which  we  furnish  the 
rogues  in  our  penitentiaries.  In  the  New  Hampshire,  Vermont, 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  Pennsylvania  state-prisons,  the 
weekly  allowance  of  meat  (which  is  in  variety — not  merely  bacon) 
is  always  from  one  to  three  pounds  more  than  that  recommended 
by  Mr.  Collins,  and  which  his  slaves  received  with  "  much  satis- 
faction," after  "a  stinted  policy"  had  been  given  up,  and  three 
to  five  pounds  more  than  that  provided  by  Mr.  Phillips.  A 
greater  variety  of  vegetables  and  condiments  is  also  provided ; 


LOUISIANA.  701 

and  in  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  and  Pennsylvania,  the  quan- 
tity of  potatoes  or  porridge  furnished  is  officially  reported  to  be 
"  unlimited."  Our  laborers  certainly  do  not  generally  look  with 
envying  eyes  upon  the  comforts  of  a  prison. 

Does  argument,  that  the  condition  of  free-laborers  is,  on  the 
whole,  better  than  that  of  slaves,  or  that  simply  they  are  gener- 
ally better  fed,  and  more  comfortably  provided,  seem  to  any  one 
to  be  unnecessary?  Many  of  our  newspapers,  of  the  largest 
circulation,  and  certainly  of  great  influence  among  people — 
probably  not  very  reflective,  but  certainly  not  fools — take  the 
contrary  for  granted,  whenever  its  suits  their  purpose.  The 
Southern  newspapers,  so  far  as  I  know,  do  so,  without  exception. 
And  very  few  Southern  writers,  on  any  subject  whatever,  can  get 
through  a  book,  or  even  a  business  or  friendly  letter,  to  be  sent 
North,  without,  in  some  form  or  other,  asserting  that  Northern 
laborers  might  well  envy  the  condition  of  the  slaves.  A  great 
many  Southern  gentlemen — gentlemen  whom  I  respect  much  for 
their  moral  character,  if  not  for  their  faculties  of  observation — 
have  asserted  it  so  strongly  and  confidently,  as  to  shut  my 
mouth,  and  by  assuring  me  that  they  had  personally  observed 
the  condition  of  Northern  laborers  themselves,  and  really  knew 
that  I  was  wrong,  have  for  a  time  half  convinced  me  against  my 
own  long  experience.  (And  perhaps  I  should  say  that  my  expe- 
rience has  been  gained,  not  only  as  an  employer,  in  different 
parts  of  the  North,  but  as  a  laborer ;  for  I  have  been  a  farm 
laborer,  associating  and  faring  equally  with  the  generality  of 
Northern  laborers,  myself.)  I  have,  since  my  return,  received 
letters  to  the  same  effect :  I  have  heard  the  assertion  repeated 
by  several  travelers,  and  even  by  Northerners,  who  had  resided 
long  in  the  South :  I  have  heard  it  publicly  repeated  in  Tamma 


702  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

ny  Hall,  and  elsewhere,  by  Northern  Democrats  :  I  have  seen  it 
in  European  books  and  journals  :  I  have,  in  times  past,  taken  its 
truth  for  granted,  and  repeated  it  myself.  Such  is  the  effect  of 
the  continued  iteration  of  falsehood. 

Since  my  return  I  have  made  it  a  subject  of  careful  and 
extended  inquiry.  I  have  received  reliable  and  unprejudiced 
information  in  the  matter,  or  have  examined  personally  the  food, 
the  wages,  and  the  habits  of  the  laborers  in  more  than  one  hundred 
different  farmers'  families,  in  every  free  State  (except  California), 
and  in  Canada.  I  have  made  personal  observations  and  inquiries 
of  the  same  sort  in  Great  Britain,  Germany,  France,  and  Belgium. 
In  Europe,  where  there  are  large  landed  estates,  which  are  rented 
by  lordly  proprietors  to  the  peasant  farmers,  or  where  land  is  di- 
vided into  such  small  portions  that  its  owners  are  unable  to  make 
use  of  the  best  modern  labor-saving  implements,  the  condition  of 
the  laborer,  as  respects  food,  often  is  as  bad  as  that  of  the  slave 
often  is — never  worse  than  that  sometimes  is.  But,  in  general, 
even  in  France,  I  do  not  believe  it  is  generally  or  frequently 
worse ;  I  believe  it  is,  in  the  large  majority  of  cases,  much  better 
than  that  of  the  majority  of  slaves.  And  as  respects  higher 
things  than  the  necessities  of  life — in  their  intellectual,  moral  and 
s-ocial  condition,  with  some  exceptions  on  large  farms  and  large 
estates  in  England,  bad  as  is  that  of  the  mass  of  European  labor- 
ers, the  man  is  a  brute  or  a  devil  who,  with  my  information,  would 
prefer  that  of  the  American  slave.  As  to  our  own  laborers,  in  the 
Free  States,  I  have  already  said  enough  for  my  present  purpose. 

But  it  is  time  to  speak  of  the  extreme  cases,  of  which  so 
much  use  has  been  made,  in  the  process  of  destroying  the  confi- 
dence of  the  people  of  the  United  States  in  the  freedom  of  trade, 
as  applied  to  labor. 


LOUISIANA.  703 

In  the  year  1855,  the  severest  winter  ever  known  occurred 
at  New  York,  in  conjunction  with  unprecedenteclly  high  prices 
of  food  and  fuel,  extraordinary  business  depression,  unparalleled 
marine  disasters,  and  the  failure  of  establishments  employing 
large  numbers  of  men  and  women.  At  the  same  time,  there 
continued  to  arrive,  daily,  from  five  hundred  to  one  thousand  of 
the  poorer  class  of  European  peasantry.  Many  of  these  came, 
expecting  to  find  the  usual  demand  and  the  usual  reward  for 
labor,  and  were  quite  unprepared  to  support  themselves  for  any 
length  of  time,  unless  they  could  obtain  work  and  wages.  There 
was  consequently  great  distress. 

We  all  did  what  we  thought  we  could,  or  ought,  to  relieve  it ; 
and  with  such  success,  that  not  one  single  case  of  actual  starva- 
tion is  known  to  have  occurred  in  a  close  compacted  population 
of  over  a  million,  of  which  it  was  generally  reported,  fifty  thou- 
sand were  out  of  employment.  Those  who  needed  charitable 
assistance  were,  in  nearly  every  case,  recent  foreign  immigrants, 
sickly  people,  cripples,  drunkards,  or  knaves  taking  advantage 
of  the  public  benevolence,  to  neglect  to  provide  for  themselves. 
Most  of  those  who  received  assistance  would  have  thrown  a 
slave's  ordinary  allowance  in  the  face  of  the  giver,  as  an  insult; 
and  this  often  occurred  with  more  palatable  and  suitable  pro- 
visions. Hundreds  and  hundreds,  to  my  personal  knowledge, 
during  the  worst  of  this  dreadful  season,  refused  to  work  for 
money-wages  that  would  have  purchased  them  ten  times  the 
slave's  allowance  of  the  slave's  food.  In  repeated  instances,  men 
who  represented  themselves  to  be  suffering  for  food,  refused  to 
work  for  a  dollar  a  day.  A  laborer,  employed  by  a  neighbor  of 
mine,  on  wages  and  board,  refused  to  work  unless  he  was  better 
fed.     "  What's  the  matter,"  said  my  neighbor  ;  '•'  don't  you  have 


704  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

enough?"  "Enough;  yes,  such  as  it  is."  "You  have  good 
meat,  good  bread,  and  a  variety  of  vegetables  ;  what  do  you 
want  else?"  "  Why,  I  want  pies  and  puddings,  too,  to  be  sure.'J 
Another  laborer  left  another  neighbor  of  mine,  because  he  never 
had  any  meat  offered  him,  except  beef  and  pork  ;  he  "  didn't  see 
why  he  shouldn't  have  chickens." 

And  these  men  went  to  New  York,  and  joined  themselves  to 
that  army  on  which  our  Southern  friends  exercise  their  pity — 
of  laborers  out  of  work — of  men  who  are  supposed  to  envy  the 
condition  of  the  slave,  because  "  the  slave  never  dies  for  want  of 
food."* 

In  the  depth  of  winter,  a  reliable  man  wrote  us  from  Indiana : 

"  Here,  at  Rensselaer,  a  good  mechanic,  a  joiner  or  shoemaker,  for 
instance — and  numbers  are  needed  here — may  obtain  for  his  labor  in  one 
week : 


2  bushels  of  corn, 
1  bushel  of  wheat, 
5  pounds  of  sugar, 
i  pound  of  tea, 
10  pounds  of  beef, 


25  pounds  of  pork, 
1  good  turkey, 
3  pounds  of  butter, 
1  pound  of  coffee, 
1  bushel  of  potatoes, 


and  have  a  couple  of  dollars  left  in  his  pocket,  to  start  with  the  next 
Monday  morning." 

The  moment  the  ice  thawed  in  the  spring,  the  demand  for 


*  Among  the  thousands  of  applicants  for  soup,  and  bread,  and  fuel,  as  charity, 
I  never  saw,  during  ''the  famine"  in  New  York,  one  negro.  The  noble  Five 
Points  Pease  said  to  me,  ■'  The  negro  seems  to  be  more  provident  than  the  Celt. 
The  poor  blacks  always  manage  to  keep  themselves  more  decent  and  com- 
fortable than  the  poor  whites.  They  very  rarely  complain,  or  ask  for  charity ; 
and  I  have  often  found  them  sharing  their  food  with  white  people,  who  were  too 
poor  to  provido  for  themselves."  A  great  deal  of  falsehood  is  circulated  and 
accredited  about  the  sufferings  of  the  free-negroes  at  the  North.  Their  condi- 
tion is  bad  enough,  but  no  worse  than  that  of  any  men  educated  and  treated  as 
they  are,  must  be ;  and  it  is,  I  think,  on  an  average,  far  better  than  that  of  the 
slave, 


LOUISIANA. 


705 


mechanics  exceeded  the  supply,  and  the  workmen  had  the 
master-hand  of  the  capitalists.  In  June,  the  following  rates 
were  willingly  paid  to  the  different  classes  of  workmen — some 
of  the  trades  being:  on  strike  for  higher : 


Per  Week. 

Per  Week 

Boiler-maker,     -    -    $12  to  $20 

Harness-maker,    -    - 

$10 

Blacksmith,      -    -    -    12  to 

20 

Mason,     -    -    -    - 

-  10  to    15 

Baker,       -    -    -    -        9  to 

14 

Omnibus-driver,  -    - 

10 

Barber, 7  to 

10 

Printer,    -    -    -    - 

-  10  to    25 

Bricklayer,    -    -    -    -  14  to 

15 

Plumber,    -    -    -    - 

15 

Boat-builder,  -    -    - 

15 

Painter  (house), 

15 

Cooper, 8  to 

12 

Piano-forte  maker, 

-    10  to    14 

Carpenter  (house),    - 

15 

Shipwright,   -    -    - 

18 

Confectioner,     -    -    -    8  to 

12 

Ship-caulker,    -    - 

18 

Cigar-maker,    -    -    -      9  to 

25 

Ship-fastener,     -    - 

18 

Car-driver  (city  cars), 

10 

Shoemaker,       -    - 

16 

Car-conductor,  " 

ioi 

Sign  painter,       -     - 

-  25  to  30 

Engineer,  common,    -    12  to 

15 

Sail-maker,  -    -    - 

15 

Engineer,  locomotive, 

15 

Tailor,       -     -    -    - 

-     8  to  17 

At  this  time  I  hired  a  gardener,  who  had  been  boarding  for  a 
month  or  two  in  the  city,  and  paying  for  his  board  and  lodging 
$3  a  week.  I  saw  him  at  the  dinner-table  of  his  boarding-house, 
and  I  knew  that  the  table  was  better  supplied  with  a  variety  of 
wholesome  food,  and  was  more  attractive,  than  that  of  the  ma- 
jority of  slave-owners  with  whom  I  have  dined. 

Amasa  Walker,  formerly  Secretary  of  State  in  Massachusetts, 
is  the  authority  for  the  following  table,  showing  the  average 
wages  of  a  common  (field-hand)  laborer  in  Boston  (where  immi- 
grants are  constantly  arriving,  and  where,  consequently,  there  is 
often  a  necessity,  from  their  ignorance  and  accidents,  of  charity, 
to  provide  for  able-bodied  persons),  and  the  prices  of  ten  differ- 
ent articles  of  sustenance,  at  three  different  periods  : 


30* 


706 


OUR    SLAVE    STATES. 


WAGES  OF  LABOR  AND  FOOD  AT  BOSTON. 

1836. 

1840. 

1843. 

"Wages. 

Wages. 

Wages. 

$1-25  per  day. 

$1  per  day. 

$1  per  day. 

1  barrel  flour,       -     - 

$9-50 

$5-50 

$4-75 

25  lbs.  sugar,  at  9c. 

•  2-25 

2-00 

1-62 

10  gals,  molasses,  42Jc. 

4-25 

2-70 

1-80 

100  lbs.  pork,  -    -    -    - 

4-50 

8-50 

5-00 

14  lbs.  coffee,  12|c.    - 

1-75 

1-50 

5-00 

28  lbs.  rice,    -    -    -    - 

1-25 

1-00 

75 

1  bushel  corn  meal,  - 

96 

65 

62 

1     do.     rye  meal, 

1-08 

83 

73 

30  lbs.  butter,  22c.     - 

6-60 

•  4.80 

4-20 

20  lbs.  cheese,  10c. 

2.00 

1-60 

1-40 

$44-00 

$28-98 

$22-00 

This  shows  that  in  1836  it  required  the  labor  of  thirty-four 
and  a  half  days  to  pay  for  the  commodities  mentioned;  while  in 
1840  it  required  only  the  labor  of  twenty-nine  days,  and  in  1843 
that  of  only  twenty-three  and  a  half  days  to  pay  for  the  same. 
If  we  compare  the  ordinary  allowance  of  food  given  to  slaves 
per  month — as,  for  instance,  sixteen  pounds  pork,  one  bushel 
corn  meal,  and,  say  one  quart  of  molasses,  on  an  average,  and 
a  half  pint  of  salt- — with  that  which  it  is  shown  by  this  table 
the  free  laborer  is  usually  able  to  obtain  by  a  month's  labor, 
Ave  can  estimate  the  comparative  general  comfort  of  each. 

I  am  not  all  disposed  to  neglect  the  allegation  that  there 
is  sometimes  great  suffering  among  our  free  laborers.  Our 
system  is  by  no  means  perfect ;  no  one  thinks  it  so :  no  one 
objects  to  its  imperfections  being  pointed  out.  There  was  no 
subject  so  much  discussed  in  New  York  that  winter  as  the 
causes,  political  and  social,  which  rendered  us  liable  to  have 
laborers,  under  the  worst  possible  combination  of  circumstances, 
liable  to  difficulty  in  procuring  satisfactory  food. 

But  this  difficulty,  as  a  serious  thing,  is  a  very  rare  and  ex- 


LOUISIANA.  707 

ceptional  one  (I  speak  of  the  whole  of  the  Free  States) :  that  it 
is  so,  and  that  our  laborers  are  ordinarily  better  fed  and  clothed 
than  the  slaves,  is  evident  from  their  demands  and  expectations, 
when  they  are  deemed  to  be  suffering.  When  any  real  suffer- 
ing does  occur,  it  is  mainly  a  consequence  and  a  punishment  of 
their  own  carelessness  and  improvidence,  and  is  in  the  nature  of 
a  remedy. 

And  in  every  respect,  for  the  laborer  the  competitive  system, 
in  its  present  lawless  and  uncertain  state,  is  far  preferable  to  the 
slave  system ;  and  any  laborer,  even  if  he  were  a  mere  sensualist 
and  materialist,  would  be  a  fool  to  wish  himself  a  slave. 

One  New  York  newspaper,  having  a  very  large  circulation  at 
the  South,  but  a  still  larger  at  the  North,  in  discussing  this 
matter,  last  winter,  fearlessly  and  distinctly  declared — as  if  its 
readers  were  expected  to  accept  the  truth  of  the  assertion  at 
once,  and  without  argument — that  the  only  sufficient  prevention 
of  destitution  among  a  laboring  class  was  to  bo  found  in  Slavery  ; 
that  there  was  always  an  abundance  of  food  in  the  Slave 
States,,  and  hinted  that  it  might  yet  be  necessary,  as  a  security 
against  famine,  to  extend  Slavery  over  the  present  Free  States. 
This  article  is  still  being  copied  by  the  Southern  papers,  as  testi- 
mony of  an  unwilling  witness  to  the  benevolence  and  necessity 
of  eternal  Slavery. 

The  extracts  following,  from  Southern  papers,  will  show  what 
has  occurred  in  the  Slave  country,  in  the  mean  while : 

"  For  several  weeks  past,  we  have  noticed  accounts  of  distress  among 
the  poor  in  some  sections  of  the  South,  for  the  want  of  bread,  particu- 
larly in  Western  Georgia,  East  and  Middle  Alabama.  Over  in  Coosa, 
corn-cribs  are  lifted  nightly  ;  and  one  poor  fellow  (corn  thief)  lately  got 
caught  between  the'  logs,  and  killed  I  It  is  said  there  are  many  grain- 
hoarders  in  the  destitute  regions,  awaiting  higher  prices !     The  L — d 


^08  OUR    SLAVE     STATES. 

pity  the  poor,  for  his  brother  man  will  not  have  any  'mercy  upon  his 
brother." — Pickens  Republican,  Carrolton,  Ala.,  June  5,  1855. 

"  We  regret  that  we  are  unable  to  publish  the  letter  of  Governor 
Winston,  accompanied  by  a  memorial  to  him  from  the  citizens  of  a  por- 
tion of  Randolph  county,  showing  a  great  destitution  of  breadstuffs  in 
that  section,  and  calling  loudly  for  relief. 

"  The  Claiborne  Southerner  says,  also,  that  great  destitution  in  re- 
gard to  provisions  of  all  kinds,  especially  corn,  prevails  in  some  portions 
of  Perry  county." — Sunny  South.,  Jacksonville,  Ala.,  May  26,  1855. 

"  As  for  wheat,  the  yield  in  Talladega,  Tallapoosa,  Chambers,  and  Ma- 
con, is  better  even  than  was  anticipated.  Flour  is  still  high,  but  a 
fortnight  will  lower  the  price  very  materially.  We  think  that  wheat  is 
bound  to  go  down  to  $1-25  to  $1-50  per  bushel,  though  a  fine  article 
commands  now  $2-25. 

"  Having  escaped  famine — as  we  hope  we  have — we  trust  the  plant- 
ing community  of  Alabama  will  never  again  suffer  themselves  to  be 
brought  so  closely  in  view  of  it.  Their  want  of  thrift  and  foresight  has 
come  remarkably  near  placing  the  whole  country  in  an  awful  condition. 
It  is  only  to  a  kind  Providence  that  we  owe  a  deliverance  from  a  great 
calamity,  which  would  have  been  clearly  the  result  of  man's  short-sighted- 
ness."— Montgomery  Mail,  copied  in  Savannah  Georgian,  June  25, 
1855. 

"  Wheat  crops,  however,  are  coming  in  good,  above  an  average  ;  but 
oats  are  entirely  cut  c .;.  I  am  issuing  commissary,  this  week,  for  the 
County,  to  distribute  some  corn,  bought  by  the  Commissioner's  Court, 
for  the  destitute  of  our  0  *uaty  ;  and  could  you  have  witnessed  the  appli- 
cants, and  heard  their  stories,  for  the  last  few  clays,  I  am  satisfied 
you  could  draw  a  picture  that  would  excite  the  sympathy  of  the  most 
selfish  heart.  I  am  free  to  confess  that  I  had  no  idea  of  the  destitution 
that  prevails  in  this  County.  Why,  sir,  what  do  you  think  of  a  widow 
and  her  children  living,  for  three  days  and  nights,  on  boiled  weeds,  called 
pepper  grass  ? — yet  such,  I  am  credibly  informed,  has  been  the  case  in 
Chambers  County." — From  a  letter  to  the  editor  of  the  Montgomery 
(Ala.)  Journal,  from.  Hon.  Samuel  Pearson,  Judge  of  Probate,  for 
Chambers  County,  Alabama. 

"Famine  in  Upper  Georgia. — We  have  sad  news  from  the  north 
part  of  Georgia.     The  Dalton  Times  says  that  many  people  are  without 


LOUISIANA.  709 

corn,  or  means  to  procure  any.  And,  besides,  there  is  none  for  sale.  In 
some  neighborhoods,  a  bushel  could  not  be  obtained  for  love  or  money. 
Poor  men  are  offering  to  work  for  a  peck  of  corn  a  day.  If  they  plead 
"  our  children  will  starve,"  they  are  answered,  "  so  will  mine,  if  I  part 
with  the  little  I  have."  Horses  and  mules  are  turned  out  into  the  woods, 
to  wait  for  grass,  or  starve,  The  consequence  is,  that  those  who  have 
land  can  only  plant  what  they  can  with  the  hoe — they  cannot  plough. 
It  is  seriously  argued  that,  unless  assisted  soon,  many  of  the  poor  class 
of  that  section  will  perish." —  California  Paper.* 

No  approach  to  anything  like  such  a  state  of  things  as  these 
extracts  portray  (which  extended  over  parts  of  three  agricultural 
States)  ever  occurred,  I  am  sure,  in  any  rural  district  of  the 
Free  States.  Even  in  our  most  thickly-peopled  manufacturing 
districts,  to  which  the  staple  articles  of  food  are  brought  from 
far-distant  regions,  assistance  from  abroad,  to  sustain  the  poor, 
has  never  been  asked ;  nor  do  I  believe  the  poor  have  ever  been 
reduced,  for  weeks  together,  to  a  diet  of  corn.  But  this  famine 
at  the  South  occurred  in  a  region  where  most  productive  land 
can  be  purchased  for  from  three  to  seven  dollars  an  acre ;  where 
maize  and  wheat  grow  kindly  ;  where  cattle,  sheep,  and  hogs, 
may  be  pastured  over  thousands  of  acres,  at  no  rent ;  where  fuel 
has  no  value,  and  at  a  reason  of  the  year  when  clothing  or  shelter 
is  hardly  necessary  to  comfort. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  this  frightful  famine,  unprecedented 
in  North  America,  was  scarcely  noticed,  in  the  smallest  way,  by 


*  In  the  obscure  country  papers,  of  Northern  Alabama  and  Georgia,  and 
Western  South  Carolina,  I  have  seen  many  more  descriptions,  similar  to  these, 
of  this  famine ;  but  I  cannot  now  lay  my  hand  on  them.  These  I  have  by 
accident,  not  having  taken  pains  to  collect  them  for  this  purpose.  In  a  district 
of  the  Slave  States,  where  it  is  boasted  that  more  than  a  hundred  bushels  of 
maize  to  the  acre  has  been  raised,  and  where  not  one  out  of  five  hundred  of  the 
peoplo  is  engaged  in  any  other  than  agricultural  industry,  I  have  myself  bought 
maize,  which  had  been  raised  by  free  labor,  in  Ohio,  at  two  dollars  a  bushe* 


710  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

any  of  those  Southern  papers  which,  in  the  ordinary  course  oi' 
things,  ever  reach  the  North.  In  the  Charleston,  Savannah,  and 
Mobile  papers,  received  at  our  commercial  reading-rooms,  I  have 
not  been  able  to  find  any  mention  of  it  at  all — a  single,  short, 
second-hand  paragraph  in  a  market  report,  excepted.  But  these 
journals  had  columns  of  reports  from  our  papers,  and  from 
their  private  correspondents,  as  well  as  pages  of  comment,  on 
the  distress  of  the  laborers  in  New  York  City  the  preceding 
winter. 

In  1837,  the  year  of  repudiation  in  Mississippi,  a  New  Orleans 
editor  describes  the  effects  of  the  money-pressure  upon  the  plant- 
ers, as  follows : 

"  They  are  now  left  without  provisions,  and  the  means  of  living  and 
using  their  industry  for  the  present  year.  In  this  dilemma,  planters, 
whose  crops  have  been  from  100  to  700  bales,  find  themselves  forced 
to  sacrifice  many  of  their  slaves,  in  order  to  get  the  common  necessaries 
of  life,  for  the  support  of  themselves  and  the  rest  of  their  negroes.  In 
many  places,  heavy  planters  compel  their  slaves  to  fish  for  the  means  of 
subsistence,  rather  than  sell  them  at  such  ruinous  rates.  There  are,  at 
this  moment,  thousands  of  slaves  in  Mississippi,  that  know  not  where 
the  next  morsel  is  to  come  from.  The  master  must  be  ruined,  to  save 
the  wretches  from  being  starved." 

Absolute  starvation  is  as  rare,  probably,  in  Slavery,  as  in  free- 
dom; but  I  do  not  believe  it  is  more  so.  An  instance  is  just 
recorded  in  the  New  Orleans  Delta.  Other  papers  omit  to  notice 
it — as  they  usually  do  facts  which  it  may  be  feared  will  do  dis- 
credit to  Slavery — and  even  the  Delta,  as  will  be  seen,  is  anxious 
that  the  responsibility  of  the  publication  should  be,  at  least, 
shared  by  the  Coroner  : 

"Inquest — Death  fkoji  neglect  and  starvation. — The  body  of 
an  old  negro,  named  Bob,  belonging  to  Mr.  S.  B.  Davis,  was  found  lying 
dead  in  the  woods,  near  Marigny  Canal,  on  the  Gentilly  Boad,  yesterday. 


LOUISIANA.  711 

The  Coronet  held  au  inquest  ;  and,  after  hearing  the  evidence,  the  Jury 
returned  a  verdict  of  '  Death  from  starvation  and  exposure,  through 
neglect  of  his  master.'  It  appeared  from  the  evidence,  that  the  negro 
was  too  old  to  work  any  more,  being  near  seventy  ;  and  so  they  drove 
him  forth  into  the  woods  to  die.  He  had  been  without  food  for  forty- 
eight  hours,  when  found  by  Mr.  Wilbank,  who  lives  near  the  place,  and 
who  brought  him  into  his  premises  on  a  wheelbarrow,  gave  him  some- 
thing to  eat,  and  endeavored  to  revive  his  failing  energies,  which  had 
been  exhausted  from  exposure  and  want  of  food.  Every  effort  to  save 
his  life,  however,  was  unavailing,  and  he  died  shortly  after  being  brought 
to  Mr.  Wilbank's.  The  above  statement  we  publish,  as  it  was  furnished 
us  by  the  Coroner." — Sept.  18,  1855. 

This  is  the  truth,  then — is  it  not  ? — The  slaves  are  generally 
sufficiently  well-fed  to  be  in  good  physical  working  con- 
dition ;  but  not  as  well  as  our  free  laborers  generally  are : 
Slavery,  in  practice,  affords  no  safety  against  occasional 
suffering  for  want  of  food  among  laborers,  or  even  against 
their  starvation,  any  more  than  the  democratic,  or  free  sys- 
tem ;  while  it  withholds  all  encouragement  from  the  laborer  to 
improve  his  faculties  and  his  skill ;  destroys  his  self-respect ;  mis- 
directs and  debases  his  ambition,  and  withholds  all  the  natural 
motives,  which  lead  men  to  endeavor  to  increase  their  capacity  of 
usefulness  to  their  country  and  the  world.  To  all  this,  the  occa- 
sional suffering  of  the  free  laborer  is  favorable,  on  the  whole. 
The  occasional  suffering  of  the  slave  has  no  such  advantage. 
To  deceit,  indolence,  malevolence,  and  thievery,  it  may  lead, 
as  may  the  suffering — though  it  is  much  less  likely  to — of 
the  free '  laborer ;  but  to  industry,  cultivation  of  skill,  perse- 
verance, economy,  and  virtuous  habits,  neither  the  suffering,  nor 
the  dread  of  it  as  a  possibility,  ever  can  lead  the  slave,  as  it 
generally  does  the  free  laborer,  unless  it  is  by  inducing  him  to 
run  away. 


712  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

I  cannot  leave  this  subject,  without  expressing  my  conviction 
of  the  great  evil  which  the  necessity  felt  by  so  many,  to  apolo- 
gize for  Slavery  at  every  convenient  opportunity,  is  working  in 
our  own  society.  It  is  to  be  attributed,  very  much,  to  this 
source,  I  think — the  growing  disposition  to  look  upon  the 
laborer,  the  artisan,  the  handicraftsman — the  man  who  is  em- 
ployed at  any  of  those  callings  in  which  it  is  commonly  thought 
safe  and  proper  to  educate  slaves — as  a  less  fortunate  and  respecta- 
ble man  than  the  tradesman,  the  clerk,  the  "  professional"  man. 
To  make  Slavery  less  hateful,  the  condition  and  prospects  of  free 
laboring  people,  are  habitually  disparaged.  Our  children  are 
familiarized  with  comparisons  unfavorable  to  the  happiness  and 
respectability  of  our  own  working  class,  and  are  led  to  believe 
that  men  who  work  for  a  living  are  seldom  successful;  that  they 
are  peculiarly  dependent  on  others ;  that  others  have  to  bo 
careful  of  them,  and  often  provide  for  them  out  of  charity  and 
pity.  And  many  of  our  working  men  are  themselves  influenced 
by  this  idea,  and  look  upon  their  customers  as  in  some  way  their 
superiors  ;  and  in  consequence  of  this  feeling  they  get  a  habit  of 
thinking  themselves  ill-used,  and  unfortunate,  poorly  compen- 
sated for  their  labor;  therefore,  also,  they  work — the  majority  of 
our  native  mechanics — less  soundly,  and  thoroughly,  artistically, 
conscientiously,  and  with  love  and  pride  in  their  craft ;  more 
slightingly,  carelessly,  mechanically,  and  like  to  slaves  than 
they  formerly  did.  Our  most  conscientious  and  reliable  work-men 
are  no  longer  natives ;  they  are  from  Germany,  where  yet  the 
ancient  guilds,  with  their  honors  to  Wouk:.iakship,  and  conferring 
Freedom  on  passed  and  accepted  workmen*,  are  not  quite  lost. 

This   mischievous   influence    of    Sla"  3:7 .  upon    ourselves,   is 
rarely  appreciated  as  it  should  be.     Clarence  Cook,  in  his  ad- 


LOUISIANA.  713 

mirable  lecture — "  The  Head  and  the  Hand" — is  almost  the 
only  one  of  our  public  instructors  by  whom  I  have  heard  it  at  all 
adequately  recognized. 

This  book  is  already  so  much  too  large,  that  I  cannot  dwell  upon 
the  subject ;  but  I  must  declare  my  conviction,  that  the  common 
notions,  not  only  in  the  comparison  of  our  free  work-men  with 
slaves,  but  of  free  work-men  with  free  men  of  sedentary  and  effemi- 
nate callings,  are  fallacies,  and  have  no  other  foundation  than  the 
political  degradation  of  work-men  in  our  own  Slave  communities, 
and  the  undemocratic  communities  of  Europe.  Certain  I  am, 
that  in  my  experience,  the  young  men  of  good  sense,  sobriety  and 
industry,  who  have  been  educated  as  artisans,  have  been  more 
successful,  in  every  view,  than  the  young  men  of  similar  quality, 
who  have  been  educated  as  clerks.  Where,  too,  so  much  capital 
as  is  necessary  to  prepare  a  man  for  the  learned  professions  has 
been  used  to  prepare  workers  in  the  industrial  fields  of  science, 
it  has  been  better,  sooner,  and  with  more  honor,  repaid  in 
results.  There  is  infinitely  more  room  and  need  for  the 
genius  of  Michael  Angelo  in  a  garden,  or  a  ship-yard,  or  a 
blacksmith's  or  carpenter's  shop,  than  in  the  sales-room,  the 
counting-house,  the  pulpit,  or  the  court-house.  Nor  need  the 
cobbler's  stall,  if  a  man  have  by  nature  great  endowments  for 
statesmenship,  be  the  smallest  restriction  upon  their  develop- 
ment. I  believe,  in  fact,  it  yet  is  not ;  and  that  it  is  still  easier 
for  a  great  mind  to  direct  itself  to  great  things,  and  to  gain  a 
position  to  work  great  things,  in  hammering  leather,  than  in 
engrossing  pleas  and  filing  declarations. 

And  I  consider  the  skilled  work-man  to  be  always  more  inde- 
pendent of  charity — to  be  in  a  more  reliable  and  respectable 
position,    actually,   in   society,   than    the    skilled  clerk,   or  the 


714  OUR     SLAVE     STATES. 

skilled  professional  man ;  so  far,  that  is  to  say,  as  the  mere 
callings  of  each  are  concerned.  A  larger  proportion  of  the 
clergymen,  lawyers,  doctors,  salesmen,  tradesmen,  merchants, 
speculators  in  land,  and  planters,  of  the  United  States,  are 
involved  in  debt,  and  will  never  pay  their  debts,  than  of  the 
laborers,  yeomen  farmers,  mechanics,  and  artisans.  The  former 
class  are  more  likely  to  become  hopelessly  bankrupt  from  per- 
sonal accidents  than  the  latter.  The  mechanic  may  lose  his 
right  hand,  and  his  acquired  skill  being  no  longer  available,  he 
will  be  comparatively  helpless ;  but  the  physician,  the  lawyer, 
may  lose  their  eyes,  or  their  hearing ;  the  clergyman  may  suffer 
in  his  throat ;  the  tradesman  in  his  lungs ;  the  planter  and  specu- 
lator, by  fire,  or  rot,  or  worm,  or  war,  and  thus  become  equally 
incapable  of  self-support  with  the  crippled  mechanic. 

As  to  success  of  the  farm-laborer  in  gaining  wealth,  I  cannot 
now  speak  with  equal  confidence  as  of  the  mechanic ;  but  that 
sensible  and  industrious  farmers,  who  have  started  in  life  with 
no  capital  but  a  good  common-school  education,  and  a  good 
farm-boy's  skill  and  strength  for  labor,  more  often  spend  a 
happy  and  grateful  old  age  among  children  and  children's 
children,  of  whom  they  are  proud,  than  men  of  any  other 
calling  in  our  country,  I  have  not  a  doubt. 

In  every  way,  I  repeat  it,  the  idea. that  a  muscular  or  handi 
craft  occupation,  if  directed  with  the  genius  and  thought  it  always 
may  and  should  be,  is  lower  or  less  fortunate,  and  less  likely  to  be 
attended  with  honor  in  a  free  country,  than  the  occupations  of 
transfer,  scheming,  copying  and  adapting  of  forms  and  prece- 
dents, is  a  most  false  and  pernicious  one.  It  is  true,  only,  that 
a  man  without  any  education  may  be  a  bad  workman,  while  he 
cannot  well  be  even  a  bad  clerk,  lawyer,  or  physician.      But 


LOUISIANA.  715 

genius,  taste,  energy,  and  dexterity,  as  well  as  capital  in  general 
knowledge,  and  culture  of  the  mind,  are  even  more  valuable,  and 
are  at  this  time  more  wanted  in  our  market,  and  are  better  paid 
for  in  the  artisan  and  mechanic,  than  they  are  in  the  tradesman, 
or  the  professional  man.  The  only  basis  for  the  contrary  notion 
that  I  know  of,  is  that  slaves  are  excluded  from  trade  and  "  the 
professions,"  and  that  therefore,  wherever  the  influence  of  Slavery 
extends,  those  occupations  to  which  slaves  are  condemned  are 
considered  to  belong  to  a  lower  caste  of  the  community,  and  so 
to  degrade  those  who  engage  in  them. 


APPENDIX. 


Feom  a  native  Virginian,  who  has  resided  in  New  York: 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  N.  Y.  Daily  Times. 

"  Sir  : — You  will  not  object,  I  think,  to  receive  an  endorsement  from 
a  Southern  man  of  the  statements  contained  in  number  seven  of  '  Letters 
on  the  productions,  industry,  and  resources  of  the  Southern  States.'  pub- 
lished iu  your  issue  on  Thursday  last      *     *     * 

"  Where  you  would  see  one  white  laborer  on  a  Northern  farm,  scores 
of  blacks  should  appear  on  the  Virginia  plantation,  the  best  of 
them  only  performing  each  day  one-fourth  a  ivhite  man's  daily  task, 
and  all  requiring  an  incessant  watch  to  get  even  this  small  modicum 
of  labor.  Yet  they  eat  as  much  again  as  a  white  man,  must  have 
their  two  suits  of  clothes  and  shoes  yearly,  and  although  the 
heartiest,  healthiest  looking  men  and  women  anywhere  on  earth,  actu- 
ally lose  for  their  owners  or  employers  one-sixth  their  time  on  ac- 
count of  real  or  pretended  sickness.  Be  assured,  our  model  Vir- 
ginia farmer  has  his  hands  full,  aud  is  not  to  be  envied  as  a  jolly  fox- 
hunting idler,  lording  it  over  '  ranks  of  slaves  in  chains.'  No,  sir  ;  he 
must  be  up  by  '  the  dawn's  early  light,'  and  head  the  column,  direct  in 
person  the  commencing  operations,  urging,  and  coaxing ;  must  praise 
and  punish — but  too  glad  to  reward  the  meritorious,  granting  liberty 
(i.  e.  leave  of  absence,)  often  to  his  own  servant,  that  he  dare  not  take 
himself,  because  he  must  not  leave  home  for  fear  something  will  go  wrong 
ere  his  return.  Hence  but  too  many  give  up,  to  overseers  or  other  irre- 
sponsible persons,  the  care  and  management  of  their  estates,  rather  than 
undergo  such  constant  annoyance  and  confinement.  Poor  culture,  scanty 
crops,  and  worn-out  land,  is  the  inevitable  result ;  and  yet,  harassed  and 
trammeled  as  they  are,  no  one  but  a  Southerner  regards  them  with  the 
slightest  degree  of  compassion  or  even  forbearance,  and  our  good  friends* 


718  APPENDIX. 

the  Abolitionists,  would  have  '  all  the  rest  of  mankind'  rank  them  with 
pirates  and  cut-throats.  But  my  object  in  this  communication  is  not 
to  sympathize  with  nor  ask  sympathy  on  behalf  of  slave-holders.  For, 
however  sinning  or  sinned  against,  they  seem  quite  able  to  take  their 
own  part,  if  molested  ;  and  are  remarkably  indifferent,  withal,  as  to  the 
opinions  expressed  by  ignorant  ranters  concerning  them. 

"  If  I  have  the  ability,  my  desire  is  to  draw  a  parallel  between  the 
state  and  condition  of  Northern  and  Southern  farmers  and  farming. 
The  Northern  farmer  does  undoubtedly  experience  a  full  share  of  those 
troubles  and  cares  attendant  even  upon  the  most  easy  and  favorable 
system  of  farming  ;  but,  sir,  can  he  have  any  such  responsibility  as  that 
resting  upon  the  owner  of  from  50  to  300  ignorant,  lazy  negroes? 

*  -X-  *  *  *  *  -55-  -X-  *  *  ■» 

"  You  mast  plow  deep,  follow  up  quickly,  and  sow  with  powerful  fer- 
tilizers, attend  closely  to  the  growing  crop,  gather  in  rapidly  before 
blight  or  mildew  can  come  and  destroy,  says  our  Northern  farmer.  On 
a  farm  of  three  hundred  acres,  thus  managed  with  five  hands,  two  extra 
during  harvest,  I  can  raise  thirty  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre.  Now 
picture  the  condition  of  him  South,  and  hear  his  answer.  "With  from 
three  to  fifteen  hundred  acres  of  land,  and  a  host  of  negroes  great  and 
small,  his  cares  and  troubles  are  without  end.  '  The  hands,'  able  men 
and  women,  to  say  nothing  of  children,  and  old  ones  laid  by  from  age  or 
other  infirmity,  have  wants  innumerable.  Some  are  sick,  others  pretend 
to  be  so,  many  obstinate,  indolent,  or  fractious — each  class  requires  dif- 
ferent treatment ;  so  that  without  mentioning  the  actual  daily  wants,  as 
provisions,  clothing,  etc.,  etc.,  the  poor  man's  time,  and  thoughts — in- 
deed, every  faculty  of  mind — must  be  exercised  on  behalf  of  those  who 
have  no  minds  of  their  own. 

"  His  answer,  then,  to  the  Northern  farmer  is  :  '  I  have  not  one  hand 
on  my  place  capable  and  willing  to  do  the  work  you  name.'  They  tell 
me  that '  five  of  them  could  not  perform  the  task  required  of  one.'  They 
have  never  been  used  to  do  it,  and  no  amount  of  force  or  persuasion  will 
induce  them  to  try  ;  their  task  is  so  much  per  day,  all  over  that  I  agree 
to  pay  them  for,  at  the  same  rate  I  allow  free  laborers — but  'tis  seldom 
they  make  extra  time,  except  to  get  money  enough  to  buy  tobacco,  rum, 
or  sometimes  fine  clothes.  Can  it  be  wondered  at  that  systematic  farm- 
ing, such  as  we  see  North  and  East,  is  unknown  or  not  practiced  to  any 
great  degree  South?    The  two  systems  will  not  harmonize. 

"  E.   J.  W." 


APPENDIX.  719 

From  a  native  New  Yorker,  who  has  resided  in  Virginia : 

"To  the  Editor  of  the  New  York  Daily  Times. 

"  I  have  read  with  deep  interest  the  series  of  letters  from  the  South, 
published  in  your  columns.  Circumstances  have  made  me  quite  familiar 
with  the  field  of  your  correspondent's  investigation,  much  more  familiar 
than  he  is  at  present,  and  yet  I  am  happy  to  say,  that  his  letters  are 
more  satisfactory  than  any  I  have  ever  seen  relating  to  the  South.  It 
is  now  about  ten  years  since,  going  from  this  State,  I  first  became  fa- 
miliar with  those  facts  in  regard  to  the  results  of  slave-labor,  etc.,  that 
your  correspondent  and  his  readers  are  so  much  surprised  at.  I  have 
talked  those  subjects  over  as  he  is  doing,  with  the  planters  along  the 
shores  of  the  Chesapeake,  and  on  both  sides  of  the  James  River, 
through  the  Tidewater,  the  middle  and  the  mountainous  districts  east 
of  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  in  many  of  those  rich  counties  in  the  Valley  of 
Virginia.  I  may  add  that  subsequently,  spending  my  winters  at  the 
South  for  my  health,  I  have  become  well  nigh  as  familiar  with  the 
States  of  North  and  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  as  I  am  with  Vir- 
ginia. I  have,  therefore,  almost  of  necessity,  given  not  a  little  thought 
to  the  questions  your  correspondent  is  discussing. 

"  His  statement,  in  regard  to  the  comparative  value  of  slave  and  free- 
labor,  will  surprise  those  who  have  'given  little  or  no  attention  to  the 
subject.  I  wish  to  confirm  his  statements  on  this  subject.  In  Eastern 
Virginia  I  have  repeatedly  been  told  that  the  task  of  one  cord  of  wood 
a  day,  or  five  cords  a  week,  rain  or  shine,  is  the  general  task,  and  one 
of  the  most  profitable  day's  work  that  the  slave  does  for  his  master. 
And  this,  it  should  be  remembered,  is  generally  pine  wood,  cut  from 
trees  as  straight  and  beautiful  as  ever  grew.  The  reason  of  this  '  pro- 
fitableness' is  the  fact  that  the  labor  requires  so  little  mental  effort. 
The  grand  secret  of  the  difference  between  free  and  slave-labor  is,  that 
the  latter  is  without  intelligence,  and  without  motive.  If  the  former, 
in  Western  New  York,  has  a  piece  of  work  to  perform,  the  first  thought 
is,  how  it  can  be  done  with  the  least  labor,  and  the  most  expeditiously. 
He  thinks,  he  plans,  before  he  commences,  and  while  about  his  labor. 
His  mind  labors  as  much  as  his  body,  and  this  mental  labor  saves  a  vast 
deal  of  physical  labor.  Besides  this,  he  is  urged  on  by  the  strongest 
motives.  He  enjoys  the  products  of  his  labor.  The  more  intelligent 
and  earnest  his  labors,  the  richer  are  his  rewards.  Slave-labor  is  exactly 
the  opposite  of  this.     It  is  unintelligent  labor — labor  without  thought 


72C  APPENDIX. 

— without  plan — without  motive.  It  is  little  more  than  brute  force. 
To  one  who  has  not  witnessed  it,  it  is  utterly  inconceivable  bow  little 
labor  a  slave,  or  a  company  of  slaves,  will  accomplish  in  a  given  time. 
Their  awkwardness,  their  slowness,  the  utter  absence  of  all  skill  and 
ingenuity  in  accomplishing  the  work  before  them,  are  absolutely  painful 
to  one  who  has  been  accustomed  to  seeing  work  done  with  any  sort  of 
spirit  and  life.  Often  they  spend  hours  in  doing  what,  with  a  little 
thought,  might  be  dispatched  in  a  few  moments,  or  perhaps  avoided 
altogether.  This  is  a  necessary  result  of  employing  labor  which  is 
without  intelligence  and  without  motive.  I  have  often  thought  of  a 
remark  made  to  me  by  a  planter,  in  New  Kent  County,  Virginia.  We 
were  riding  past  a  field  where  some  of  his  hands  were  making  a  sort  of 
•wicker-work  fence,  peculiar  to  Eastern  Virginia.  '.  There,'  said  he,  in 
a  decidedly  fretted  tone,  '  those  "  boys  "  have  been  —  days  in  making 
that  piece  of  fence.'  I  expressed  my  astonishment  that  they  could  have 
spent  so  much  time,  and  yet  have  accomplished  so  very  little.  He 
assured  me  it  was  so — and  after  a  slight  pause,  the  tones  of  his  voice 
entirely  changed,  said  :  '  Well,  I  believe  they  have  done  as  well  as  I 
would  in  their  circumstances !'  And  so  it  is.  The  slave  is  without 
motive,  without  inducement  to  exertion.  His  food,  his  clothing,  and  all 
his  wants  are  supplied  as  they  are,  without  care  on  his  part,  and  when 
these  are  supplied  he  has  nothing  more  to  hope  for.  He  can  make  no 
provision  for  old  age,  he  can  lay  up  nothing  for  his  children,  he  has  no 
voice  at  all  in  the  disposal  of  the  results  of  his  earnings.  What  cares 
he  whether  his  labor  is  productive  or  unproductive.  His  principal  care 
seems  to  be  to  accomplish  just  as  little  as  possible.  I  have  said  that 
the  slaves  were  without  ingenuity — I  must  qualify  that  remark.  I  have 
been  amused  and  astonished  at  their  exceeding  ingenuity  in  avoiding 
and  slighting  the  work  that  was  required  of  them.  It  has  often  seemed 
to  me  that  their  principal  mental  efforts  were  in  this  direction,  and  I 
think  your  correspondent  will  find  universal  testimony  that  they  have 
decided  talent  in  this  line.  h.  w.  p." 

In  a  volume  entitled  "Notes  on  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin; 
being  a  Logical  Answer  to  its  Allegations  and  Inferences 
against  Slavery  as  an  Institution,"  by  the  Eev.  E.  J.  Stearns, 
of  Maryland,  (much  the  most  thorough  review  of  that  work 
made   from  the  Southern    stand-point,")    the   author,   who   is  a 


APPENDIX.  721 

New-Englander  by  birth,  shows,  by  an  elaborate  calculation, 
that  in  Maryland,  the  cost  of  a  negro,  at  twenty-one  years 
of  age,  has  been,  to  the  man  who  raised  him,  eight  hundred 
dollars.  Six  per  cent,  interest  on  this  cost,  with  one  and 
three-quarters  per  cent,  for  life  insurance,  per  annum,  makes 
the  lowest  wages  of  a  negro,  under  the  most  favorable  cir- 
cumstances, sixty-two  dollars  a  year,  (or  five  dollars  a  month,) 
paid  in  advance,  in  the  shape  of  food  and  clothing.  The 
author,  whose  object  is  to  prove  that  the  slave-holder  is  not 
guilty,  as  Mrs.  Stowe  intimates,  of  stealing  the  negroes'  labor, 
proceeds,  as  follows,  to  show  that  he  pays  a  great  deal  more 
for  it  than  Mrs.  Stowe's  neighbors  in  New  England  do,  for 
the  labor  they  hire : 

"If  now  we  add  to  this,  (what  every  New-Englander  who  has 
Lved  at  the  South  knows,)  that  Quashy.  does  not  do  more  than 
one-third,  or,  at  the  very  utmost,  one-half  as  .much  work  as  an  able- 
bodied  laborer  on  a  farm  at  the  North  ;  and  that,  for  this  he  receives, 
besides  the  five  dollars  above-mentioned,  his  food,  clothing  and  shelter, 
with  medical  attendance  and  nursing  when  sick,  and  no  deduction  for  lost 
lime,  even  though  he  should  be  sick  for  years,  while  the  '  farm-hand' 
at  the  North  gets  only  ten  or  twelve  dollars,  and  has  to  clothe 
himself  out  of  it,  and  pay  his  own  doctor's  and  nurse's  bill  in  sick- 
ness, to  say  nothing  of  lost  time,  I  think  we  shall  come  to  the  con- 
elusion  if  there  has  been  stealing  anywhere,  it  has  not  been  from 
Quashy." — p.  25. 

'•'I  recollect,  the  first  time  I  saw  Quashy  at  work  in  the  field,  I 
was  struck  by  the  lazy,  listless  manner  in  which  he  raised  his  hoe. 
St  reminded  me  of  the  working-beam  of  the  engine  on  the  steam-boat 
1hat  I  had  just  landed  from — fifteen  strokes  a  minute  ;  but  there  was  this 
difference:  that,  whereas  the  working-beam  kept  steadily  at  it,  Quashy, 
mi  the  contrary,  would  stop  about  every  five  strokes  and  lean  upon 
1  is  hoe,  and  look  around,  apparently  congratulating  himself  upon  the 
amount  of  work  he  had  accomplished. 

"  Jlrs.  Stowe  may  well  call  Quashy  -  shiftless.'  One  of  my  father's 
31 


722  APPEKDXA.. 

hired  men — who  was  with  him  seven  years — did  more  work  in  that  time 
than  an  average  negro  would  do  in  his  whole  life.  Nay,  I  myself  have 
done  more  work  in  a  day, — and  followed  it  up,  too — than  I  ever  saw  a 
negro  do,  and  I  was  considered  remarkably  lazy  with  the  plow  or 
hoe."— p.  142. 

The  Journal  of  Commerce,  of  April  21,  has  a  communication 
from  a  slave-holder,  urging  an  emigration  of  emigrant-labor 
ers  to  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  where,  he  says,  the  Irish 
and  Germans  are  destined  to  drive  out  the  negroes: 

"  The  latter  are  too  costly  an  article  of  Virginia  luxury  to  be  kept 
any  longer.  A  good  able-bodied  negro  costs  now-a-days  $1,000,  and  at 
this  price  is  very  unprofitable  property.  A  mortgage  on  a  flock  of 
partridges  is  almost  as  certain.  He  may  die,  be  maimed  for  life,  or  be 
induced  by  his  philanthropic  Northern  friends  to  vamose;  whereas,  if 
'  Paddy  or  Hans'  shuffles  off  his  mortal  coil,  you  suffer  no  pecuniary 
loss  ;  you  don't  even  bury  him,  or  pay  his  doctor's  bill,  but  get  another 
hand  in  his  place. 

"  Hundreds  of  farmers  and  planters,  mill  owners,  tobacconists,  cotton 
factories,  iron  works,  steam-boat  owners,  master  builders,  contractors, 
carpenters,  stage  proprietors,  canal-boat  owners,  rail-road  companies, 
and  others  are,  and  have  been,  short  of  hands  these  five  years  past,  in 
Maryland,  Virginia,  and  the  Carolinas.  They  pay  $150  or  $200  per 
year,  each  hand,  and  his  board  and  stealing,  and  if  that  hand  be 
present  or  absent,  sick  or  well,  it  is  all  the  same.  His  clothes  cost 
say  $30  more,  and  in  many  cases  the  hirer  has  to  pay  his  policy  of 
life  insurance.  A  white  man  will  do  three  times  the  work,  and  will 
be  five  times  better  cared  for,  than  in  the  Northern  States  in  similar 
circumstances. 

"  White  men  are  badly  wanted  in  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  North 
Carolina.  Thousands  of  negroes  have  gone  from  there  last  year  to 
Louisiana  and  Texas ;  their  places  must  be  filled.  By  all  means  let  our 
Emigration  Society  encourage  them  to  go  South." 

In  another  Condemnatory  Eeview  of  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin," 
by   H.    M.    Brackenbridge,  published  in   the   National  Intelli- 


APPENDIX.  723 

gencer,  Dec,  1852,  containing  many  very  sensible  observa 
tions  on  Slavery,  resulting,  as  is  announced,  from  ten  years' 
personal  observation  of  slaves,  by  the  writer,  and  much  re- 
flection, it  is  stated  that  "the  day's  labor  of  the  slave  is 
notoriously  not  more  than  half  that  of  the  white  man ;  and, 
if  left  to  himself,"  (that  is,  not  driven,)  "  not  more  than 
half  that." 


APPENDIX  A. 

The  statement  that  Georgia  had  disused  the  slave  basis  of 
representation  for  her  own  Legislature,  was  made  upon  informa- 
tion given  me  by  a  Georgia  planter.  Since  the  plate  of  page 
531  was  cast,  I  have  endeavored,  without  success,  to  verify  it ; 
and  am  now  inclined  to  think  I  had  been  misinformed.  Accord- 
ing to  the  latest  authorities  in  the  Astor  and  Law  Libraries,  in 
New  York,  it  is  strictly  true  with  regard  only  to  the  election  of 
the  State  Senate,  which  alone  is  representative  of  the  citizens  in 
their  equality  of  political  rights;  in  the  lower  house,  thirty- 
seven  counties,  having  the  greatest  population,  counting  all  free 
white  persons,  and  two-fifths  of  the  people  of  color  [not  merely 
the  slaves],  have  two  votes  each,  which,  however,  represent  the 
interests  only  of  the  whites  ;  the  remaining  fifty-six  poorer 
counties,  but  one  each.  By  this  arrangement,  five  hundred 
slaveholding  citizens  might  exercise  double  the  power  of  five 
thousand  non-slaveholding  citizens  in  the  House,  "while  the  latter 
might  have  ten  times  more  power  than  they  in  the  Senate.  This 
is  evidently  one  of  those  absurd  arrangements,  based  on  no 
principle  at  all,  which  are  hatched  by  compromises.  The  slave- 
basis  has  not  been  given  up,  if  this  arrangement  still  holds  ;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  has  not  been  honestly  sustained.  In  more 
than  one  of  the  post-revolutionary  Slave  States,  the  slave-basis 
of  representation,  for  their  internal  legislation,  is  entirely  dis- 
carded, and  there  is  no  doubt  it  soon  would  be  in  all,  but  for  the 
argument  ad  hominem,  repeated  by  Mr.  Howison.  For  con- 
sistency's sake,  the  slave-owners  are,  in  some  States,  still 
allowed  this  entirely  unnecessary  advantage,  for  maintaining  their 
control  of  legislation 


